Future Realities
by selfless1978
Summary: If you thought everything we have already been through was a roller coaster ride. You have no idea... Takes place after 'New Realities' and "Ninja Bots and Auto Turtles'
1. Chapter 1

Father was going to kill us when he found out what we were doing. It was bad enough we snuck out but we had stumbled head first into something I wasn't sure we were ready to handle. As usual the hot headed one leapt before he looked and the results were that we were surrounded by Purple Dragons. Growling in frustration I ducked under a blow and brought my katana up to block the pipe that went for the turtle next to me, who just happened to be the same one that got us into this mess.

"Good going Thane!" I snapped at him. "Now instead of breaking up a robbery, we are stuck trying to keep ourselves from being broken up!"

"This too much for you cousin?" He snapped back as his hookswords sliced a chain apart, his bright hazel eyes flashing behind his black mask. "Feel free to go home, Ty." I would have beat him, if I wasn't to busy trying to keep some else from doing it first. This was not good. We were way out numbered.

Lavinia came sliding in between the legs of another Dragon, her lavender mask tails and dark brown braid flowing beind her. A tonfa came up, nailing the guy in the nuts as she slid under him on her shell. I took the moment to kick his doubled over form away from my twin. Aunt Cris, or Aunt Marina, must have taught her that one. Mother really wasn't the nut hitting type. Aunt Caitlin never did fight, she was more inclined to think her way through things. She quickly rolled to her feet, landing a hit on another one with a baseball bat before it came down on my head. "Ty! Thane! The others are cornered and I can't reach them!"

I looked around to try and find my other cousins to see that my sister was right. Dammit! There were at least thrity men between us and them. Arianne's three sectioned staff was whirling around her, as leathal as her father's nunchucks. She was just as quick as him too, like a light green, blonde and pink whirlwind, but not even her speed could do much good with these kinds of odds.

Next to her a tall, yellow masked form tried his best to cover her. Ari was knocked back and Dante came in with a butterfly sword to block another hit at her. I didn't really like those things, I prefer the long slender blades of the katana compared to the short wide blades he was using. But he used them well, he was perfectly trained with them as he spun and brought the other in to knock a knife away from the Dragon who was going for our yougest cousin. Ari came back up swinging and expertly swung her staff around and took out yet another one.

I looked around, trying to find a way to reach my cousins while still dodging my own attackers, and I found them a way out. "Thane! Can you knock that fire escape ladder loose?" He didn't reply but quickly clipped a hook sword to his side and pulled out a sai he also carried, then launched it at the raised ladder. He hit it hard enough to knock it loose and it fell down with a rattle, taking out a Dragon with it.

"Father is going to be pissed if I loose that sai." He griped. He was worried about that? I was more worried about not getting my ass handed to me, by either Dragons or our fathers. We were so going to be in trouble if we didn't find a way out of here and get back home!

Ari and Dante quickly made their way up the fire escape, reached a ledge and followed it around then finally dropped down next to us. At least we were all together now, but still in serious trouble. We were on the wrong side of the ally to get away, the opening was on the the other side. Going up was out of the question too, since there were Dragons waiting for us up there.

"Anyone else getting the feeling they were expecting us?" Dante mumbled.

"Not us." Lavi corrected. "This is our first time out doing this, how would they know about us?" I knew they both were sort of right, this was a trap but it hadn't been set for us. And we blundered right into it. "We need to get out of here!"

"Sure thing, Ty. Just as soon as you ask those nice men to step aside for us." Ari replied.

Suddenly the press of Dragons stopped attacking and stepped back. That stunned us but we kept our guard up. And for good reason as a large form came walking into the ally from the other end. He was huge, at least as big as my uncle. I didn't know humans could get so large. I really had a bad feeling about this. "I think we are in trouble."

"What was the first clue? The fact that we snuck out or the fact that we are surrounded?" Dante said sarcasticlly.

"Didn't Uncle give you anything we can use here?" I asked him as I scanned the surrounding for any way out.

"Please, you know he doesn't let me have any of his good stuff. I'm only fifteen for crying out loud."

The large human had by now made it to us and looked us over in surprise. "What's this? More freaks? Not what I was expecting but I might as well wipe you out. No point in having more of you running around." He then looked at Lavi and Ari and I didn't like the leer that came over his face. "I might have some fun with you two first. You actually aren't to bad looking. A little weird, but not bad."

"You keep your filthy hands off of them!" Thane thundered and charged the big human before I could reach out to stop him. God he was so much like his father it wasn't funny. At least Uncle controlled his temper better. He was easilly caught by the throat and slammed into the wall behind us. Shit! What the hell was this guy? Lavi tried to go to him to see if he was hurt when that same hand reached out and picked her up, once again by the throat. She stuggled in that iron grip, obviously trying to get some air.

"The rest of you will behave, or I snap her throat." The large human grinned at us. Thane growled as he stood up, but held his temper in check and stayed back. Think, Ty, think! That was your sister he had! Maybe Father had been right, we weren't ready for this. And now we were about to pay for that mistake. All we could do was look on in horror as he stood grinning at us with Lavi dangling in his grasp.

Suddenly four dark figures dropped down in front of us. Quicker than we could ever hope to be right now one of them lashed out, knocking Lavi from the man's hand while another caught her as she flew out of his grasp. The one who knocked my sister loose turned to face me for a quick moment, his blue eyes blazing in rage behind that blue mask and I knew I was in serious trouble now. Nothing scared me more than the very mad figure in front of me.

"You are grounded for the next fucking month!" He snapped at me, then tore into the man in front of us. Father was pissed...

Uncle Raph went to Thane as Uncle Mikey set Lavi back on her feet. "Are you alright?" He asked his son in a gruff tone. Thane swallowed hard but nodded. "Good, because when we get home you won't be!" He snapped and Thane flinched. Uncle Raph then went to go help Father with the big guy.

Uncle Mikey and Uncle Donnie shot their offspring quick, disappointed glances, but said nothing before they too engaged the men in front of us. We had watched them numerous times as they trained, hell they were the ones who trained us, our mothers, my step siblings but none of us could match the raw power and speed of our fathers. But even they had a hard time with the sheer amount of goons we stumbled across, and it didn't help matters that two of the four were engaged with the large human.

After a few quick blows Father and Uncle Raph knocked him away and Father took a quick look at the situation, then glared back at us. We were to scared of them to move from that wall, maybe it would be safer to stay here? "Move!" Father snapped. "We need to get out of here and the only way is through them!"

"You heard him!" Uncle Raph growled. "You wanted a night on the town, you got one. Now move! Before I kick your asses!"

We shot into motion again. The large human made a move for us again, obviously figuring out that we were the easier prey. Hell we were just teenagers, still training ourselves. Before he could reach Ari, who was the closest target, Father again intercepted him. "Not his time Hun." He growled at the human and moved in again. While Father kept him distracted Uncle Mikey came flying in and landed on his shoulders, then let himself fall backwards using the momentum and his legs to fling Hun against a wall. Hun crashed into into it face first and upside down, hung there for a moment, then slipped down to the ground.

"This way!" Uncle Donnie called. He and Uncle Raph were trying to clear us a way through the mass of Dragons towards the alley opening on the other side. We quickly made our way to them, still unsure what to do.

"What? You forgot the last sixteen years of training? Use it!" This surprisingly came from Uncle Mikey as he came flying in over us, landing in a flurry of 'chucks and legs. Father came spinning in right behind him. His own katanas a blur in the air.

"You didn't have a problem fighting before we got here. What's the problem now?" Uncle Donnie asked. Um well, considering the fact we weren't supposed to be out here in the first place...it was kind of intimidating fighting next to them. We thought we did good, but we were still babies compared to them.

"You got yourselves into this mess, you fight your way out." Father told us. "We can't cover all of you. You have the skills, use them!" I sighed as once again I brought my katanas into motion. It would be just like Father to make us work our way out of this. He was a firm believer on you fix your mistakes. No way he was going to make this easy for us. We started this, he was going to make sure we finished it too.

Lavi fought next to me, her tankas moving with a fluid grace as she spun them around her. Her slender form belied the stength that was locked within. She kicked out and that kick sent a Dragon flying into another one and they both hit the ground. Then I caught a glimpse of a flash of light on metal and looked up to see a Dragon standing on the same ledge that our cousins used to get out of their eralier jam, and he had a gun. I didn't even think. "Lavi! Up!"

She effortlessly sommersaulted into my waiting palms and I sent her flying towards the man on the ledge. Before he could even lift his gun towards her she came in in a vertical spin, slamming her heel against his head, before she landed on the ledge. Then she sprinted along the ledge and quickly took out another one with a few quick punches. Then she jumped off of the ledge in a forward spin landing on yet another, taking him out the same way Uncle Mikey flipped Hun but this time in a forward roll and slamming the body into the ground. Father was over her in an instant to cover her as she sprung back to her feet, his swords intercepting makeshift weapons that were aimed at my sister. "Be more aware of your surroundings before you try a stunt like that, Lavi!" He snapped at her.

"Yes, father." She replied without pausing in her movements.

I heard a whistle of air from behind my head and spun, only to see a man pinned to the wall behind me with a sai. My eyes grew wide at the thought of what just happened. "Stop gawking at what the others are doing and pay attention!" Uncle Raph growled at me as he yanked his sai from the wall, then knocked the guy out. "Yes, Uncle."

Jeez, this fight was just as bad as a training session. Every move was analysed and if we screwed up, we heard about it. But in all honestly it felt good to have them there. A situation that seemed almost hopeless to us before was quickly turning into one that we maybe had a chance to get out of.

"Ari! You need to recover faster from your swings, you left yourself open!" Uncle Donnie scolded her while he stood over her as she picked herself up off of the ground.

Didn't mean that we wanted to get out of here though. I wonder if there was a chance I could make it to the docks and catch a boat to China? If their tones were any indication, we were nowhere near done with this ordeal after this fight.

"You deserved that, Dante. Need to be quicker on the counter attack, dude." I sighed. Even Uncle Mikey was pissed. This was going to be a long night.

"Hai, Uncle!"

"Thane! Stop using that as a damn butter knife and put some effort behind your swings!"

"Yes, Father." He growled out. Well he should be pissed, we wouldn't be in this damn mess if he had just held back! I had a few choice words saved up for my hot headed cousin when we got a moment. I had a feeling we would have plenty of those...in the dojo...with our fathers. Oh boy.

A cry of pain rang out into the night, and all thoughts of what was going to happen at home suddenly took a back seat. I knew that voice and my blood ran cold.

"Ari!" Uncle Mikey's voice followed and I turned to see him rushing to her as she slumped against the wall in pain, her hand clasped to her shoulder. Uncle Donnie was trying his hardest to cover her, but he couldn't fight and get her at the same time. Even in the dim light I could see the blood coming from under her hand. In a flurry of movement Uncle Mikey fought his way to her side and scooped her up, Father not far behind him. Jesus, we should never have done this. She was just fourteen for crying out loud. If I thought Father was pissed before, then I had no idea what to describe him now. He struck out around him in fury, anyone who got to close to the girl was going to bleed, a lot.

"Daddy, it hurts." I heard Ari whisper as they caught up with us. I coverd Uncle Mikey's other side now as they met up with me and Uncle Donnie covered the rear.

"I know pumpkin." Uncle Mikey told her softly, his own anger now gone, replaced with concern.

"Raph! We need to push through! Now!" Father called to my uncle. We were so close to the end of the ally, almost free.

Suddenly Hun was there in front of us again and Uncle Raph didn't even hesitate, he lept high, spun, brought his leg out and nailed him right upside the head and he was gone just as quick as he popped up. His flight path also cleared out a lot of Dragons and we had our opening.

"GO!" Uncle Raph thundered at us, and we went. We hauled ass down the street until we were a few buildings down, with the Dragons in pursuit. Once we got far enough away from the ally to where we knew the ones on the rooftop couldn't follow us, we went up ourselves. All we needed was one clear rooftop to get away from them and we used it. Once we were up Father led us across the gaps and uneven roofs until we left all signs of the Dragons far behind us.

We survived our first night out on our own, but now I wondered if the experience was worth it. I shot a quick look at my twin as we followed Father home, both of us knew we were in for it. That boat to China was really seeming like a good idea right about now.


	2. Chapter 2

I'm not sure if I wanted to get yelled at or not, but Father's continued silence definitely bothered me. Once he had led us to safety he remained quiet, but you could feel the ass chewing building as we made our way home. "How is she?" He quietly asked Uncle Donnie as we stopped for a moment so he could check Ari's shoulder.

"Just a cut, it's deep but there won't be any permanent damage. When we get back I'll clean it and stitch it up." He sighed then looked at her. "I'm sorry, Ari. I tried to keep him away but he was able to slip past me."

"Not the way I wanted you to get your first battle scar." Uncle Mikey to her softly. "That was close, it could have done way more damage."

"It was also unnecessary." Father snapped, his gaze sweeping over the rest of us. I felt Ty flinch next to me as their eyes met before Father's eyes moved on to me. But, still, he remained silent.

"That it was." Uncle Raph agreed as Thane got his own evil eye. I sighed, I wish they would just yell at us already. I had a feeling that wasn't going to happen this time. I knew what that meant and I wasn't looking forward to it.

"You think we stand a chance if we make a run for it?" Dante asked me in a soft whisper.

"Hell no." I replied just as quietly before we moved out again. "Besides, you know if we make it home before they catch us our moms are going to tear into us just as quick."

"Good point."

With a cloud of doom hanging over us we got home, to find four just as furious mothers waiting for us. "Where did you find them?" Mother asked Father.

"In the last place they needed to be." He replied. "They got caught up in the trap the Dragons had set up for us." Father knew about the trap? Oh, no. I had a feeling we blundered into something more serious than we at first thought. Not that going against fifty men wasn't serious. My heart dropped into my stomach, we had more than likely seriously screwed something up. Bad. "Go to bed and get some rest, I'll deal with them." Father told her and she fixed us another glare but didn't say anything as she turned and walked away. He then turned to Ty and I. "You two. Dojo, now." His tone left no room for any arguments as he led the way.

We walked in behind him and waited while he quietly stood there for a few moments, facing away from us and looking at a picture on the wall in front of us. It was an old picture of our grandfather that someone had snapped as he sat meditating. He stood still, quiet as he looked at that picture and that didn't help our nervousness at all. Ty took a deep breath, "Father, I'm-"

"Draw your weapons." Father cut him off. We both flinched, here we go.

"Please, Father-" I was cut off just as quick.

"I said draw them!" He thundered and we didn't argue again as we drew them out and held them ready, not that it would do us any good. Father came for me first as he finally spun around, his katanas leading. I managed to pick them off, the leg that came in after not as good. "Weeks! Weeks we had been monitoring them!" He almost yelled as Ty was up next. My brother didn't fare as well either as he was flipped and ended up on the mat.

"Countless hours of surveillance, trying to figure out what they were up to, wasted!" I got back on my feet and found myself in the middle of a bladestorm, Ty came in on Father's left and he quickly backflipped out of both of our reaches, then came in again with a roundhouse kick that knocked us both on our asses.

"Three days of laying false leads so they would set up that trap, so we could go unhindered into their storage facility, _all for nothing!" _His katanas met Ty's and spun them out of his hands then he turned on me and dislodged my weapons out of my hands just as quick. Then he dropped both of his and grabbed us both and slammed us down on the mats. He was now kneeling between us holding us down on the mats.

"And to top it all off, you spring the god damn trap and we had to abort our mission to get you!" He glared at us. "Now would you like to explain to me what in the hell you were thinking!"

We exchanged glances as Father stood back up crossing his arms over his chest as he waited. Ty slowly got up to his feet and faced Father. Though he did stay out of immediate reach, not that Father couldn't close that gap in a heartbeat. He was just as tall but Father out muscled him still so my brother was careful not to upset him anymore than he already was. "We wanted to help."

"Your help got your cousin hurt!" Father snapped back, his eyes flashing. I was waiting for him to resume our training session but he stood still. "There was no reason for Ari to be out there! None of you needed to be out there but especially not her!"

I also made my way to my feet as Ty struggled with what Father had just told him. "Father, we didn't know." I said. "But we have watched you struggle with this and thought we could help." We just couldn't watch them as they tried to figure this out. They were frustrated, tired and worried over whatever was going on. All of us had felt helpless as we stood on the sidelines. It was pretty much a mutual agreement between all of us that we would follow them out tonight. Aunt Caitlin, who usually stays behind, wasn't feeling well and had went to bed early so we saw our chance to help where we could, without being seen, then try to sneak back home. That went as planned for about ten minutes before we lost sight of where our parents went to. So we went in the direction they had been heading, and ran right into the Purple Dragons as they seemed to be robbing a warehouse. Thane jumped in to stop the few men we could see and, well, that was the end of that as the place exploded with Dragons.

"Of course you didn't know! We didn't _want_ you to know!" He snapped back at me then brought a hand to his eyes and started rubbing them. "Lord, you two are so much like your mother, always quick to help and not thinking about the consequences." He sighed then looked back at us. "Do you have any idea how badly this could have ended for all of you tonight? If your Aunt hadn't called us to let us know you snuck out there is a very real chance you wouldn't have made it home." Then he set a very solemn gaze on us. "Not to mention your existence is now known and that's going to set a whole new set of complications into motion. Now you're going to be hunted as well and you have no idea how much that scares me." He told us softly, his eyes finally softening.

We didn't know what to say. Ty and I exchanged quick glances, neither of us had thought about that. "I'm sorry Father." Ty whispered to him.

"Titian, sorry isn't going to cover this one." Father replied. "I now have to consider something I wasn't ready to do yet." We exchanged curious looks at each other then returned our gaze to our Father as he met ours with a now calm, but firm one. "It's time to expand your training. There are things I can't teach you here and you now need to learn them, your life depends on it. From here on out, you're coming with us." We couldn't help the grins finding their way on our faces. Going out on patrol with them? The very thought of going out just sent shivers of excitement up my spine.

"Do not mistake what I am doing." He told us in a low tone. "You wanted to play with the adults, you will be treated as one. They will take no pity on you just because you are teenagers, remember that. You will listen, you will learn, you will grow your skills so I can know that the next time you go off on your own you have the skills to survive." Well he just took the fun out of that for us, it wasn't going to be a grand adventure, just another type of training...yay. "You are both still otherwise grounded. No TV, video games or tunnel expeditions, two extra training hours a day and you will take over the care of your grandfather's goats. And lord help you if I catch you out there again on a mission I refuse to take you on. Am I clear?" We nodded our understanding. "Did I hurt you?" He then asked, this time with a tone of concern in his voice."

Ty grinned at him. "No more than in a normal training session."

He smiled a little. "You are dismissed. I need to discuss this further with your uncles." Then he let out a sigh. "And figure out a new plan."

"Well that went well." Ty muttered to me as we left to dojo, his hand rubbing a shoulder. "God he hits hard when he's pissed."

"The trick there, genius, is not to piss him off." Amy told us from where she was leaning on the wall waiting for us to come out. She walked with us as we made our way to the living area. "You know he's going to be hard on you, he has every reason to be." Our step sister had a point. "You realize the first thing he did when Aunt Cait called was flip out? He had no idea which way you went and you didn't have any kind of tracking devices on you. It was sheer luck that they found you." She shot a grin at us. "He was cursing so loud Dennis was in the van trying to turn the damn volume down on his headset. He made Uncle Raph look like a mild mannered old lady. What in the hell were you guys thinking?"

"I'm not so sure we were, sis." Ty told her. "We just wanted to help and screwed everything up." He plopped down on the couch with his legs stretched out in front of him.

"So how did they find us?" I asked curiously.

"He had Dennis run a bioscan for your signatures from the van, once he could put a sentence together that wasn't mostly made of swearwords. Lucky for you the whole trap setup wasn't to far away from where the actual hit was taking place." She shook her head. "And Mom wasn't much better. She wanted to come help too but he made the point that if it was to much to handle they didn't need to catch all of us."

Just then the lair door opened and Thane and Dante came in, with Uncle Raph behind them. He fixed them a glare, then went to go talk to Father who was already waiting for him in the dojo. Thane was walking with a slight limp and Dante was rubbing his wrist. "Remind me to never have one of these talks with Uncle Raph again." Dante muttered as he sat on the floor in front of us. "I got stuck with him because Dad is still patching Ari up."

Thane grunted as he sat in the chair. "I wish they would quit treating us like babies. We did pretty good out there." Seriously? Did he just say that? We were getting our asses handed to us.

"Thane, stop." Ty told him. "We screwed up and you know it."

"Maybe we wouldn't have if they would trust us more." He snapped back.

"If you wouldn't have just jumped out there then we wouldn't have gotten into the fight in the first place."

"Oh, so this is my fault now?" He growled as he stood up. "Last I remember it was _your_ idea to follow them!"

"Because you were whining and wanting to go own your own! I wasn't about to let you do that!" Ty also got up. I just sighed in resignation. I had a pretty good idea where this was going to go.

"I don't need a babysitter! I didn't ask you to come!"

"Apparently you do and you didn't have to ask us! We knew you would get into trouble out there!" They were about a foot apart now and I was starting to think I might have to intervene before another asswhopping took place tonight. I didn't think we needed anymore fights.

"_Enough!_" Uncle Raph's voice bellowed across the room. We all turned to see him standing in the doorway to the dojo, with father standing next to him. Both of them were glaring at their sons.

"All of you, go to bed." Father added. "I'm not in the mood to deal with this anymore tonight and it's already late."

Without another word we got up and went to our rooms. I was hoping some sleep would ease the tension we were feeling. I seriously doubted it but I hoped anyway.


	3. Chapter 3

"Ugh...this stinks."

I had to agree with Ty on that one, if not on much of anything else. Goat shit did stink. Dad had thought Uncle Leo's punishment was a great idea so now I was stuck with this too. I hated it, why did we have to do this? We should be out with them. No matter what Dad and my uncles thought, I felt that we were more than ready to go out and help. I hated staying behind all the time! And now I was stuck in this stupid barn cleaning out goat shit, just because they wanted to baby us. Why couldn't they understand that we didn't need to be treated like little kids anymore? In frustration I threw the shovel across the barn, I was sick of this! Mama Goat, Gramps' favorite goat at the moment, looked at me and gave me a slight baaa in protest over the noise. "Oh, shut up." Of course she baaaed at me again. I swear, she was trying to piss me off. Crap, who was I trying to kid, I was already pissed off.

"Boy! Your Dad and uncles didn't help me build this barn so you could throw shit through the walls!" Gramps snapped as he came in. "You hit one of my goats and I'll give you a whoopin so bad you're going to be stuck in Donnie's lab for a week." I flinched as he glared at me, you really didn't want to mess with Aunt Vicky's father, I think Dad was even scared of that old man when he got pissed. He came in, got some tools and left again.

"Good going Thane." Lavi grumbled at me as she rolled her eyes. She had hay all over her as she was laying out fresh bedding for the stalls we had already cleaned. "Get us into more trouble why don't you."

"Bite me." I mumbled back at her then I grabbed the handles of the once again full wheelbarrow and pushed it out to Gramps' compost pile where I dumped it and wheeled it right back in and Ty once again began to fill it up. "Good god, how often do these guys take a dump?" I said in exasperation. "We aren't even halfway done."

"If you worked as much as you grip, complain and pout we would be done by now." Ty told me as he scooped up another pile."

"Why does Gramps have to have so many of these friggin things?" Sure one or two were cute, he had like fifty. Gaaah that smell!

"Because he likes them, and he sells them." Lavi replied, pulling out another haybale.

"I like my weapons too and you don't see my room cluttered with them." I went to retrieve the shovel I threw earlier.

"Will you just stop?" Ty snapped at me. "What does it take to get through your head that we screwed up and we have to do this?"

"No I will not stop!" He just didn't get it. I didn't want to do this, shouldn't be any reason to have to do this.

Ty stopped his shoveling and set his level gaze on me. "What the hell is wrong with you? You've been pissy for the last few days now."

"Last few days?" Lavi laughed. "He's always pissy." Well, quit pissing me off then.

"I'm just sick of this. All of it. Stuck at home all the time while our parents go out. I'm tired of being treated like a damn kid. And I'm sick of smelling goat shit!" This time I slammed the shovel onto the ground.

"And I'm sick of your complaining! You think I like being here doing this?" Ty looked like he was about to hit me with that shovel he still held on to. "Let's just get this done."

"And who put you in charge, Ty? Since when do I have to listen to you?"

"You're not listening to me you idiot! You are doing what our fathers told us to do! Are you really that fucking stupid?"

Oh..no...he..._didn't_! "That's it!" I threw the haybale Lavi had just brought out at him and he ducked under it. It hit the wall behind him and split apart, hay flying everywhere and he responded by throwing a bucket full of goat feed at me which I also ducked. The clattering sound of it hitting the floor was accompanied by the rattling of feed pellets as they scattered across the floor. I tackled him. I was going to take his goody goody attitude and shove it up his ass. I've had enough of him! He tried to doge but I was to close and to quick for him and we hit the floor...hard. We rolled around while I tried to give him a good whack in the eye as he was trying to see how bad he could break my ribs. With a crash we rolled into the wheelbarrow and of course the contents fell all over us as it tipped over, which pissed me off even more. Next we crashed into a water pail that had been sitting full nearby and now I was covered in wet goat shit. Lavi scrambled out of the way as we kept on rolling towards her, she knew better than to get involved. I'd whoop her ass just as- Oh shit.

We came to a stop only because we had crashed into someone else, and they didn't trip and fall or scramble out of the way. We looked up to see Dad and Uncle Leo standing over us, with Uncle Mikey and Uncle Donnie standing not far behind. Fuck. And go figure, Gramps, Mom and Aunt Vicky were there too.

"Hey, Mikey, they kinda remind you of two turtles when they were younger?" Uncle Donnie asked his brother.

"Oh, I dunno, should they?" He grinned back.

Our fathers glared down at us, then looked at the mess we left behind us, then glared back down at us again. Mama Goat let out another baa of protest. Damn tattle tale goat. "Get up." Dad growled.

We slowly got to our feet and looked sheepishly at the mess around us, no way we were going to explain our way out of this one. Uncle Leo looked us over from head to toe as we stood in front of him in our hay and wet goat shit covered glory. He opened his mouth to say something, closed it again, then bust out laughing as Dad just shook his head. "Idiots." He mumbled.

"We can't leave you two alone for anything can we?" Mom snapped at us.

Aunt Vicky was looking around her father's now even dirtier barn and sighed. "You will clean this up. And don't you dare come into the house like that."

"Mother!"

"No!" She snapped at her son. "You want in, you go ask Gramps to hose you down first, _after_ you finish your original chore of cleaning out the stalls. You are _not_ stepping foot in my house like that!"

"Goes for you too, numb nuts." Mom told me.

Gramps grinned at us. "That water is nice and cold too." Great.

"Look on the bright side guys, it's not winter." Uncle Mikey was also grinning at us.

"And when you are done with all of that, since you have so much energy to waste fighting, meet us in the dojo." Uncle Leo told us and we both winced. My day just went to shit in a hurry.

.

.

"Again!" Uncle Leo snapped and we went through another set of katas. I was just wanting to get this over with. I was tired, still wet and somewhat dirty and just done with it all. Wearily I finished the set next to Ty and hoped that this was going to be the last one.

"That's enough." Uncle then said. "You two have got to stop this. Not a day goes by when there isn't something going on between you." What the hell did they know? Did he have any idea how annoying his son was? Stuck up, goody goody, do as you're told, take all the fun out of life, pain in my ass. That's what he was. He pissed me off to no end sometimes. "Today in the barn was the last straw."

I sighed and rolled my eyes, and promptly got smacked in the back of the head. Crap, I forgot Dad was standing behind me. "Boy, you will show your Uncle the proper respect. Even if you don't like what he has to tell you. Understood?"

"Yes, sir." I tried real hard not to roll my eyes again. Same blah blah as always.

Uncle Leo looked us over thoughtfully for a moment. "I should add another week onto your punishment but I have a feeling that won't help."

"More than likely not." Dad agreed with him. "It didn't do any good with us."

Uncle Leo sighed as he still regarded us. "You will spend the rest of the evening in your rooms. Get out." That last was delivered with a tone of anger in it and I just now noticed how mad he actually was. He also sounded tired himself and suddenly I felt like a damn heel. They had a lot on their plate already and I wasn't helping matters. Still wasn't going to apologize to that brown noser though, he started it. Feeling slightly disappointed in myself I left the dojo behind Ty and went quietly to my room.

I quietly closed the door behind me and flopped down on my bed. Actually being in here really didn't make me feel better. They had all worked hard to expand the lair to give us these room and you could see their marks all over the place. Uncle Donnie hooked up the wiring, the slapshod wall that was put up was Uncle Mikey's work. Uncle Leo had helped me decorate and paint it. Dad did the woodwork for the door and frame. All of them had helped put this room together. I mean really, was my family so bad as I thought they were? Thinking back now they have done a lot for me. Sure they were hard on us but look what they had to deal with. Five half mutant turtle half human teenagers, all under one roof. All had to learn the arts and take more precautions than normal teenagers.

But then there was the other side of the coin. I wanted out. I wanted to run the rooftops, the tunnels. I didn't want to be kept safe here. I felt like a little child with eight babysitters and that frustrated me to no end. I wanted that freedom other kids my age got to enjoy. I know i sound like a selfish brat, but I just couldn't help it. It also frustrated me that the others really didn't feel the same way about it than I did. Well, they did but not to the extreme I was feeling it. I sighed, I don't know. All I do know was that this whole thing was confusing me to no end.

The knock at the door brought me out of my thoughts. "It's open." I said, without even bothering to get up. I was honestly surprised to see Dad walking in, he usually just barged in or pounded on the door with his fist. I started to get up, didn't need another respect your elders slap.

"Don't." He told me and I stopped, looking at him in confusion. He stepped in and closed the door behind him then leaned his back on the wall and crossed his arms. He watched me for a moment as I sat there on the bed, his eyes studying me. "Talk to me." He finally said.

I sighed, couldn't he just leave me alone? "About what?"

Again he just calmly watched me. "Son, don't for one moment think I don't know what's going on with you."

"You don't know anything." I snapped, frustrated.

Surprisingly he didn't take offense. "Let me guess. You're tired of being cooped up all the time here. Sure you have the the farm to run around on but it's not enough, there is more you want to see." I couldn't hide my stunned expression from him. How did he know? "You're taking it out on your cousin because you feel like he is part of the problem, always following the rules, for the most part, and detest the fact that you know he is right but you just want to do what you want to anyway. You feel he is a threat to your freedom. It's all bubbling over and you lash out without any thought to it. That about sum it up?"

I was speechless. "H-how did..."

"Thane, where do you think you get it from? Do you think you were the only teenage mutant ninja turtle who had to hide from the world?" His gaze never left mine. "You are feeling exactly the same way I did. The difference is I know what's going on with you, I understand better than anyone here. I'm giving you an opportunity I didn't have. I will help you work through this and save you and your cousin years of bickering, arguing and constant power struggles. But I can't do that if you won't talk to me."

"He is just so, so, so..."

"Annoyingly right?"

I blushed a little at how accurately he nailed it. "Yeah, I guess so. He seems to just want to do whatever you tell him to and is comfortable with it. I don't know why, but it pisses me off."

"It pisses you off because he doesn't feel the same way you do about things and you feel that he should. You feel like because of that he doesn't understand you. What you don't realize is he feels the same way about the way you're behaving. The problem comes in when you both try to make the other see _your_ point instead of trying to understand what the other is feeling. It's amazing what that little bit of insight will do to change your opinion, and it only took me forever to figure that out with your Uncle Leo. We drover Father nuts sometimes with our squabbling."

"That makes sense, I guess." I never looked at it that way before. "I guess I was being a jackass."

"You take after me on that too. I can be a pretty big one at times. You tell anyone I said that I'll deny it and then run you through the sewers until you puke." He gave me that childish grin he sometimes gets when he is in one of those moods. It's not often I get to see him this completely open and honest, usually he comes off as a large pissy grizzly bear. You can give it a hug but at your own risk.

"And as for your restlessness, there might be a solution to that also." I tried not to get my hopes up but I know he saw it in my eyes because he gave me a small smile. "Lucky for you, your blunder last night made your uncle consider to start taking all of you topside on short training runs. And I agree with him, but for different reasons though his carry their own weight with me. I know you, the chance to go out and stretch your legs up there will settle that wanderlust you've been feeling."

"Topside?" I was stunned. "Uncle wants to take us topside?" A grin found it's way on my face, I was thrilled at the idea.

"Don't get the wrong idea." He suddenly snapped. "This isn't going to be a damn field trip, Thane. You _will_ listen and there better not be any bickering up there like we saw in the barn today. You get your emotions under control, or you don't go." His eyes softened again. "I've made that mistake to many times in my life for the both of us."

There was another knock on the door and Dad opened it to find Uncle Leo standing there. "Are you about finished here?"

"I think so, he's got a better understanding of things I hope."

"He better." Uncle said then looked at me. "Gear up. We are leaving in fifteen."

It only took me five.


	4. Chapter 4

"Well this isn't as exciting as I had hoped." Thane mumbled next to me. We were following Amy through an old unused section of the railhead area and the place was dullsville. What on earth could be going on here to warrant a patrol?

"You didn't actually think they would let me take you two out in a heavy crime area did you? Hell you can't even clean a damn barn without getting into trouble." Well that explains the dullsville.

"So what are we here for then?" I asked her, just a bit frustrated and disappointed. Was hoping for a bit more action on our first night out on patrol.

"There is more to this than just beating up on bad guys, Ty." She told me a bit sharply. You had to be careful around her. She was fun, but she had a temper almost as quick as Uncle Raph's. I sighed and pushed back the dark grey mask ties that the breeze had blown into my face. "Leo will kill me if I don't at least try to teach you something beside fighting."

"Like what?" Thane asked her right as he stumbled into an old pipe and sent it rattling off down the abandoned track we were following.

"Being quiet, for one." She glared back over her shoulder. "Leo is real big on quiet."

"Sorry." He mumbled.

"_Amy, your team has some activity off to the west._" Dennis came over the headsets we were wearing. Uncle Donnie had connected this elaborate hookup years ago and when Dennis was old enough he took over the van monitoring. He was the best one suited for it. Dennis could fight just as good as Amy but he was more at home with the tech in the van so he was our support and our lifeline to the others. From where he was sitting nearby he pretty much knew what was going on in a ten block radius.

"Any idea what?" She asked him.

"_Probably nothing serious, maybe just a bunch of homeless folks_."

"_I'm not liking the probably and maybe in there_." Father broke into the conversation. "_Amy, go scope it out_."

"On it. You heard the turtle, lets go." She changed course and headed in that direction. I shot a quick grin to my cousin, maybe we would get some excitement after all. At a swift jog she made her way to an area where there were a lot of old boxcars sitting around, then slowed to a walk. She also started to take to the deepest shadows she could find and we followed her lead. She barely made a sound as she went. Then we came across a large opening in the landscape and she glanced quickly around. "Run. Quick and quiet. Go!" Then she was off.

We made it undetected next to the large ruins of an old storage building and she moved against the wall. "Be careful here." She murmured. "This area is full of sinkhoooooooles!" She disappeared down one of the sinkholes she was trying to warn us about.

"Amy!" Thane yelled as she slipped out of sight.

I was next to him in an instant at the edge. "Amy! Sis!" I called down. There was no reply and it was so dark I couldn't see anything. "Shit!" Headset, try the headset! "Father! We need you! Amy fell down a sinkhole!" Static was my only reply. "Father? Dennis?" It was just as quiet as the sinkhole, something was blocking the signal. Now what? "Amy!" I called down again and still there was no reply.

"We have to get her out of there!"

"You think I don't know that!?" I snapped back at him as I quickly dropped the pack I was wearing and pulled out a rope. Thane had made fun of me when I showed up with my bag and all the contents, but I was going to come prepared for anything. Now I'm so glad I brought it. I tossed him an end. "Tie this off somewhere." For once he didn't gripe at me and tied it off to a nearby lamppost. He yanked on it a few times to make sure it would hold then I dropped the other end down. Then I pulled a flashlight out before I slung the pack back on. I shone the light down, but it didn't reach the bottom. I still couldn't see her.

"How deep is this thing?" Thane mumbled.

"I don't know." I sat on the edge of the pit and began to make my way down and Thane followed me after I was a safe distance. We slowly and carefully made our way down, trying not to dislodge any large dirt clumps on the way down. I had no idea where she was and didn't want to drop something on her head by mistake. Curbing my fear and worry for her I kept going. After a long, nervous descent we reached the bottom and found her laying on her side. She wasn't moving.

"Amy, can you hear me?" I gently shook her and she moved limply under my hand. Quickly I checked for a pulse and breathed a sigh of relief when I found one. "She's alive, just knocked out."

"Looks like she had a rough tumble, she's all scraped up." Thane said. "We need to rig something up to get her back on top without moving her to much. Might be some damage that we can't see." That he was correct with. Quickly I dumped the pack out and scanned the contents over with the flashlight. "Nothing here really that we can use." I said in frustration.

"Your katanas. They are long enough to hold most of her frame and we can make a hammock out of the spare rope." I nodded in agreement and stripped off the sword sheaths as Thane cut the extra rope off. Swiftly we tied it all together to make the hammock then tied some extra rope on the ends.

"This is going to be tricky." I said as I looked the set up over. "We are going to have to climb up at the same time to keep her steady and laying somewhat flat."

"You up for a little team work?" He asked me.

"You know it."

"Let's get her up there then."

We tied the ends off around our bodies and together took ahold of the rope and together went up, moving our hands at the same time up the rope as we walked up the side with our legs. Side by side we went back up the way we came and managed to keep my dangling stepsister from swaying into the wall. Slowly we made our way up until finally I reached my hand over the rim and another hand clasped it. I looked up to see Uncle Mikey grinning over me as Uncle Donnie grabbed Thane's hand that came over the rim and together they pulled us up. Then we turned and pulled Amy up and laid her gently on the ground. Once we were all up is when we noticed they were all standing there.

"Nice job. I'm actually proud of you two." Uncle Raph grinned. Why were they all snickering at us? We just fished Amy out of a hole and they think this is funny?

"Seems like you can work together afterall." Father smiled softly. "Good work." He turned to the prone form on the ground, who still hadn't moved. "Gig is up Amy, time for a miraculous recovery." What?

Amy popped an eye open. "And I was having fun too. Do you have any idea how hard it was to not laugh down there?" She got up, brushing off the dirt. "Do I win any awards for my wonderful acting?"

"Sure thing." Uncle Mikey grinned back at her. "I'll make a pancake that looks like you. It's a great honor for me to do that for you."

She grinned at or stunned expressions. What the hell! "I'm actually a little insulted that you would think a hole would whoop my ass."

"That's not funny!" Thane flared. "We thought you were seriously hurt!"

"It wasn't supposed to be funny." Father calmly replied. "It was supposed to get you two to learn how to work together. To show you that you can do something beside try and beat the crap out of each other all the time. That you can trust each other when it comes down to the wire."

"But for us it was funny." Uncle Mikey said. "I couldn't quit laughing as I covered that hole up."

Uncle Raph smacked him upside the head. "Be quiet, pinhead."

Aunt Cris smacked him on the arm. "_You_ set a good example for the kids."

Mother just rolled her eyes at them. "Sometimes I wonder who is worse, the kids or them." She said to father.

"You mean you guys set this whole thing up?" Thane asked, a little pissed. Hell I was too. I've never been so scared in my life.

"Yes, we did." Uncle Raph told him. "Obviously punishing you wasn't going to work, so we came up with something else."

Aunt Marina gave us a gentle smile. "Honestly, besides being scared for Amy, didn't you two learn something about yourselves from this?"

"I guess we did." I said as I eyed my cousin to see him looking back at me just as thoughtful. Maybe it was time for us both to grow up. They were right, the majority of the time we were at each other's throats but just now we actually showed that we can work together. We could overcome our differences to do what we had to do. That one scare finally drove into my head what years of scoldings probably wouldn't have. And to be truthful about it, I did feel like I could depend on Thane if I needed to. He wasn't always the hotheaded time bomb he seemed to be.

"Then I would say you learned your lesson." Father told us both. "Grow from this, learn how to work with each other and not against each other. Because when you need to work together in a tense situation is not the time to learn, you only have time to react."

"_Leo, we got Dragon activity." _Dennis cut in on the headset. _"Van scanners just picked up a silent alarm going off in a warehouse about seven block north of your position before it was suddenly cut off. Fits their MO._"

"What's in the warehouse?"

"_All indicators points it to maybe being a weapons storage facility for a rival gang, I'm thinking the Rogues. That's why the van scanner picked it up instead of the police line. I doubt that alarm is there to ask the cops for help. There is a lot of internal communications going on in there, along the lines of 'keep those stinking lizards away from the guns' _"

"Either way we need to check it out. Neither gang needs those weapons." Uncle Raph said.

"I agree." Father turned to look at us. "You wait in the van with Dennis. This one you all sit out."

We grumbled a little at that but a quick glare from Uncle Raph shut us all up. I sighed and trudged my way back to the van after they left. It didn't take them long to disappear into the darkness but we listened in on our headsets as they made their way to the warehouse.

We approached the large vehicle we all called 'the van'. It wasn't exactly a van, more like a bus. Uncle Donnie had converted it into what it is now once our fathers realized our family was quickly outgrowing the old van. We still had it in the garage but it rarely got used much anymore. This one however did. It looked normal on the outside but inside was a different story. It had everything in it, if Uncle Donnie could think it up it went in. All of the equipment folded neatly into the sides and floor when we were traveling and the seats could also be folded and stored away to give Dennis full access to everything when they were out. I wasn't much of a tech geek but I loved this thing. Uncle Donnie even remembered a bathroom incident Father had told him about with Uncle Mikey and put in a small restroom.

As we stepped in we removed the headsets and placed them on the chargers, we wouldn't need them in here because the conversation would run over the speakers. "Yeah, they just showed up, Leo." Dennis was saying as we stepped closer. "I guess they decided to listen this time, for once."

"_Good_." Father replied. "_We are almost there. What's the current situation?_"

Dennis looked over his monitors that apparently had the security cameras of the targeted building in question on it. "Not pretty. The dragons are literally tearing the place apart. I'm not so sure it's the weapons they are after, not all of them anyway. They seem to be looking for something specific."

"_That can't be good_." Came Uncle Raph's voice.

"_It's never good when the Dragons are involved_." Uncle Donnie said. "_Dennis, I'm going to disable the cameras for a few moments so we can get in_. _With everything that is going on they will more than likely assume it's a glitch_."

"If you can, go in on the north end. Less activity there."

"_Circling around now_." Father said then it was quiet.

"So, you guys having fun yet?" Dennis asked us as he waited.

"Hell no." Dante said. "Not much fun snooping around old railroad tracks."

"Shit, at least you didn't get pranked." Thane told him and Dennis bust out laughing.

"You knew about this too, huh?" I asked my stepbrother as I sat in the chair next to him. I was severly disappointed in him, he was supposed to warn me about crap like that.

"Yes, I did. Raph told me not to say anything under the threat of a very painful ass whoopin'." He leaned back in the chair he was sitting in. "I'm sorry, bro. But I'm not even that dumb to mess with Raph."

"It did serve you two right." My twin told us as she sat down in another chair. "With the way you two act did you actually expect them_ not_ to pull something like this?"

"Can it, Lavi." Thane told her. "We got the point already, numerous times today in fact."

"It was funny though." Ari had a grin on her face as she sat out of the way on the floor, her long blonde braid was slung over her shoulder hiding the bandage.

"Glad you thought so." Thane rolled his eyes at her.

"_Dennis_," We all shut up as Father's voice once again sounded over the speakers "_we are on the north side_."

"_Disabling cameras now_." Some of the monitors went all snowy as Uncle Donnie did his thing. Then a few moments later they came back to life.

"So far so good." Dennis said, wasn't sure if he was talking to himself or them though. "The main fighting is along the eastern side of the building." He was listening to something only he could hear for a moment as he pressed the headset closer to his ear. "Leo, they are saying something about keeping the Dragons away from the stash room. Give me a few moments to see what I can find out."

"_Alright, try to hurry, this place is a damn zoo_." We could hear the commotion in the background. "_We will hold back for now. There are to many of them_."

Dennis was working quickly now as he was pulling up different files and blueprints. "Bingo." He finally said. "Southeast side, there is what appears to be a hidden room." He frowned slightly. "Be careful, there is something fishy about that room."

"_Like what kind of fishy?_" Uncle Raph asked him.

"That's just it, I don't know. All I can tell you is that something is messing with my readings."

"_You think they might know we are watching them?_" Aunt Marina asked.

"No, it's not trying to block me out, but something is definately not right. Here, I'll send it to Donnie." He punched a few buttons, then waited.

"_Got it. Hang on_."

"Hangin'."

"_Strange, it seems like something in there is letting out some serious energy."_

_"What kind of energy?_" Uncle Mikey asked.

"_The kind that makes things go boom_."

"_That settles it. We go in, now!_" Father said. "_We can't let either one get their hands on it_. _Mikey, you and Donnie circle around Raph and I will come in from the other side._"

"_What about us?_" Mother asked him.

"_You get the hell out of here."_

_"I don't fucking think so_." Aunt Cris snapped at him.

"_Get the hell out, now! If that thing goes up I'm not letting it takes us all with it_." That statement sent chills down my spine, and I exchanged shocked looks with the others. "_Go!_" Father thundered over the headset.

"_Be careful_." Mother told him.

"_Always._" He told her her in a softer tone. "_Now go. I love you._"

"Maybe you guys shouldn't be here." Dennis told us softly as he watched the monitors.

"I'm not leaving." I stubbornly replied and the others murmured their agreements. No way I was going to leave.

"_We're clear_." Came Amy's voice.

"_Mikey, Donnie, move in, we are coming up on the other side now_." We waited as silence came over the speakers, the tension building.

"_Leo, we're in!_"

"_We'll be there shortly._" Again silence, come on, just get it and get out of there!

"Guys! Watch out! They know you're there!" Dennis told them.

"_We can see that!_" Uncle Raph snapped over the headset.

"_Take out those gunmen!_" Donnie said. "_Don't let them hit-_" Their headsets cut off into static as even from here you could hear the faint explosion. No...


	5. Chapter 5

"Move!" Dennis snapped at Ty and pushed him out of the way as he went to the driver's seat. "Dante! Monitor that radio!"

I didn't ask any questions as I sat down in the chair he had just vacated. He fired up the van and pulled out, managing to somehow squeal some tires on the large thing. "Dad! Uncle Leo! Anyone? Can you hear me?"

"_Dante? Is that you?_" There was some coughing on the other end. Uncle Mikey!

"Yes Uncle." I felt relieved, but that was quickly cut short, the others still weren't responding.

"_Kiddo, do yourself a favor, don't ever go out with your Dad. He's always having shit blow up around him_." He coughed again. "_I'm so glad I have a shell_..."

"_Not funny, Mikey_." Dad! "_I didn't do that one_."

"_No, but you were near it so it's still your fault."_

_"That makes absolutely no logical sense." _He groaned in pain. "_Shit, I think I broke something."_

_"You mean besides the building?_"

I was relieved to hear them but I still wasn't picking up the others and worry still gnawed at me. Maybe if I rerouted the signal so it would bounce off one of the communications towers in the area. I set to work on the idea as Dennis sped down the streets. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't reach them however. Finally he pulled to a stop and all of us abandoned the van to search for them. "We need to hurry, it won't take long for the authorities to show up." Dennis said as he locked it up. "Spread out on the east side of the building, it's where they all were last." We met up with our mothers and Amy and we all entered the building together.

"Donnie! Mikey!" Dennis called out in the dust filled warehouse. "Where are you?"

"Under the pile of of building that fell on me." Came Uncle Mikey's voice from not far away under a pile of junk. It wasn't actually rubble so to say, more a pile of all the buildings contents. The building was surprisingly undamaged, well it was still standing anyway and there wasn't any signs of a fiery explosion. Odd. It was like some kind of force wave hit instead of an actual explosion, but it still messed the place up pretty bad. We dug him out from under the boxes and heavy crates that had fallen on him. "Well, it's about time." He said as we pulled the last of the crap off of him and stood up, he had Dad with him and he was holding his leg in pain. "Was starting to wonder if you guys went out for ice cream." Carefully he helped Dad onto his good foot.

"Where are Raph and Leo?" Dennis asked him.

"I don't know. They were farther that way." Uncle Mikey pointed then supported Dad's bad side. We turned and looked across the warehouse at the enormous mess.

"They could be anywhere in this mess." Ty said, frustrated.

Uncle Donnie had been scanning the area for them, leaning against Uncle Mikey as he did. His eyes grew wide as he was looking over the results. "No, actually they aren't."

"What?" Aunt Vicky asked stunned.

"They aren't here."

"You mean, they are...dead?" Ty asked.

"No. I mean they are not here. Period. Even if they had been blown to smithereens there would be some trace of them. There is nothing. They are just...gone."

"Gone where?" Aunt Cris snapped. Aunt Vicky had closed her eyes and seemed to draw into herself.

"I don't know." Donnie told her quietly. "Hurry, help me gather up the remains of the whatever it was." He was practically dragging Uncle Mikey across the cluttered warehouse he was limping so fast. His leg was obviously broken but he wasn't letting that slow him down. Mom frowned a little in protest and I kinda agreed with her on this one. He could hurt himself more. Good luck trying to stop him though

"Bomb?" Thane asked him as we followed.

"I don't think it is a bomb. I'm not sure exactly what it is right now, but I intend to find out."

"I can't feel him, it's like he isn't there." Aunt Vicky said quietly, her eyes filling up with tears. We all knew about the special connection she had with Uncle Leo. None of us could explain it, not even Uncle Donnie really, and none of the others have ever reached that level of connection. They had shared that bond for so long it must now be frightening for her to feel...empty.

"They aren't nearby or I would feel them. It's like they just, disappeared." Mom added. Her and Aunt Caitlin also had peculiar abilities, thanks to a pair of meddling evil geniuses. They had been literally genetically altered to be able to track down my father and uncles. That plan had however severely backfired on them and both test subjects had became part of the family they had originally been created to sniff out. Ari and I also had their new genetics to thank for us it to exist. It was compatible enough to, well, breed I guess you could say, with our fathers. Which stands to reason since mutant turtle DNA was thrown into the whole experiment. Complicated science stuff there. My aunts Cris and Vicky just had to endure a simple Uncle Mikey blood transfusion, Mom and Aunt Cait had to go through a bit more, and more painful from what I understand. Humans could be so cruel. All of them however were now a bit more than human, faster, stronger, more endurance and, if Dad is right, a longer lifespan.

Dad looked around what was left of the secret room in frustration, there wasn't much left for him to work with obviously. "Grab what ever you can and let's go."

"We aren't just going to leave without them?' Aunt Vicky asked incredulously.

Dad took a deep breath. "Vicky, I don't want to go either, but we don't have a choice. We can't find them if we get caught ourselves." To prove his point sirens could be heard in the distance.

Dennis went over to her and gave her a quick hug as the rest of us gathered up whatever we could find. "It'll be ok, Mom."

She clung to him with tears rolling down her face. "Leo...".

Aunt Cris didn't look to happy either as she looked around in worry and anger. "Where are they? Stupid idiots, when I find them I'm going to beat them for being stupid enough to get lost in the first place."

"Time to go." Uncle Mikey said. "We are out of time."

Quickly we got back into the van and Dennis pulled out just as the emergency vehicles were just pulling in. Sighing with my own frustration and fear for my missing uncles I sat down in the chair that seemed like his second home sometimes. Giving my mind something to do to stay occupied I looked again over the readings of the buildings, mainly the ones right before the explosion.

Ty had taken over trying to comfort his mother, not that he was in any better condition himself. Lavi was sitting quietly next to me on the floor as we drove away. Thane was pacing and muttering as Aunt Cris told him repeatedly to knock it off. Ari just looked, scared. Amy was talking quietly to Dennis as he drove. Mom and Uncle Mikey fussed over dad's leg as they tried to set it and wrap it. I had to give him credit, he wasn't screaming in pain from something that obviously hurt like a sonofabitch. Of course since he was our 'field medic' as Aunt Vicky keeps calling it, he would have to suppress the pain so he could tell them what to do. Still, Dad had more in him than you would think sometimes.

I was so preoccupied with everything that was going on I almost missed it. It was already very faint and I had watched the same clip a few times before I caught it. A weird reading that shouldn't have been there. I wasn't as good with this stuff as Dad, but he did teach me a thing or two. And I knew this wasn't right. I played the clip again, yup, it was a slight power spike. And it lead to the floor where they had been standing. My eyes narrowed as I took this in, trying to figure it out. I pulled that section up on larger on the screen and overlapped it with the latest building schematics we had of the area. My eyes widened, bingo. I think I knew where they went. "Trapdoor." I whispered.

"What?" Lavi asked me from on the floor where she was sitting. Her eyes trying to focus through her own tears.

"I think there was a trapdoor!" I bubbled out excitedly working quicker now, trying to pull up anything else I could. The others were starting to gather around me. So Dad could see what was going on from the cot he was strapped to, I sent the feed to his personal portal spyhack center. "Look, there is this strange surge of power, to the floor of all places. Right where they were standing from the last pings we got from them." I pointed to the other file. "This shows that there are tunnels under that building, they haven't been used in a while but they are there. And one of them runs right under where they were standing."

"Could just be coincidence." Thane grumbled.

"Even when that surge hit right before the place went boom?" I replied. "And another thing, the explosion itself. It didn't hardly do any damage to the building itself. That place should have been leveled, but it wasn't. The only thing that got damaged or knocked around was, organic in nature. That's why the crates and you guys got knocked around, but the building itself was fine. The crates were made of wood, which is an organic material."

"An organic bomb?" Thane asked incredulously.

"I still don't think it was a bomb." Dad muttered. "Well, not supposed to be anyway."

"So now what do we do?" Lavi asked, she had gotten to her feet, with an unusual fire in her eyes. Ty had the same intense look in his.

"Simple, we go back, we go in and we go find that damn door and fucking rip it up." Thane said softly.

"Watch your mouth Thane." Aunt Cris snapped at him. "But I do agree. What are we waiting for?"

Uncle Mikey had remained quiet until now, but he finally spoke. "There is no 'we'." He told Aunt Cris softly. "You guys need to get Donnie home so Cait can patch him up before he does more damage to that leg."

"You're not going in alone Mikey!" Mom snapped at him.

"I'm not going to." He replied calmly as he looked at us teens. "We were about your age when we went out on more serious crap than this."

"Are you nuts!?" Mom snapped at him. "They don't have any experience!"

"Neither did we." Dad told her softly.

"Still, you don't expect me to just let you take my son out!" Cris snapped.

"How about this?" Aunt Vicky said. "Marina and I go with them while the rest of you get Donnie back home."

"Why do I have to stay behind!" She griped.

"You can't sniff turtles." Aunt Vicky said with a grin. "If we need a pincushion I'll call you."

"Stay out of trees." Aunt Cris grumbled back.

"Besides," Dad added "nothing is saying you can't go in later."

"Backup." Amy grinned. "Or escape hole makers. I'm sure we can find something destructive to do." She winked at a suddenly less grumpy Aunt Cris.

Dennis pulled the van over and remote opened the door. "Are you still here? You got the only lead we have, go find them."

We all got our gear together, except for Ari. Who was looking on, unsure. Uncle Mikey tossed her things to her. "You too kiddo. We might need all the hands we can get." He grinned at her. "Besides, I know you can kick some serious butt. Not your fault that your uncle is getting slow." He winked at her and she giggled.

Dad just rolled his eyes before he looked at me. "Come here." I walked over to him as he unhooked all of his stuff, then handed his pack to me. "You know how to use it, right?" I nodded as I took it and strapped up. I felt ridiculous with his goggles on my head though. He smiled at my less than enthused look. "Good job on catching that, son. Now go get them back."

"You know it." I winked at him and followed the others out of the van.

Quietly we slipped into the night, back to the building that had so many questions. We were going to tear the place apart to answer them too.


	6. Chapter 6

The emptiness in my head was bothering me to no end. I didn't like it, for numerous reasons. The main one being if I couldn't reach him then he was unconscious or... I quickly pulled my mind from that thought.

"Here it is." Dante muttered. After having to wait for the emergency personnel to leave it was now time to start our own search. For the second time that night I found myself in this warehouse. Ty, Thane and Mikey went right to work removing clutter from the trapdoor.

"Now, how do we get it open?" Ty asked.

"I'm not sure." Dante admitted honestly.

I sighed in frustration as I also looked at the smooth metal door. It fit so perfectly that it was no wonder we missed it in our first visit into the place. Maybe we could pry it open?

"Can't you hack into the system and make it open?" Thane asked Donnie's son. "Your the one with the magic backpack."

"Don't you think I haven't tried that already?" He retorted. "What do you think I've been trying to do while you were clearing it off?"

"Standing there looking stupid."

"Lay off of him Thane." Ty snapped at him. "You know just as well as I do that he's not used to using the thing."

"Then why is he even here?" Thane snapped back, frustration making his volume go up.

Oh for the love of... They were just as bad as their fathers. Somehow I had a feeling that Leo's hope of a quieter next generation wasn't going to happen. "That's enough!" I snapped at both of them.

Ari had been looking thoughtfully at the silly thing while they were arguing, then suddenly just walked forward and stood on it. With a startled exclamation Mikey tried to pull her back but it was too late, the door opened under her and she slipped quietly down. With stunned looks at each other we quickly hopped on it ourselves and followed her down. What was that girl thinking?

We ended up in a smooth metal chute and there was nothing there to grab onto to break our fall as we tumbled down. Landing in a big pile of cursing bodies we hit the bottom, Mikey being the unfortunate one this time ended up at the bottom of the pile. "You guys have got to go on a damn diet." I heard his muffled voice come from under us. Yup, things were running as smooth as usual. Wouldn't feel right if we didn't fall though something at least once a week.

There was a soft giggle from above us and I looked up to see Ari crouched up in the rafters of the obviously redone tunnel. So much for this thing not being used anymore. I could barely see her up there she blended so well in the dark space."If you guys only knew how silly you look."

"So glad we could amuse you Ari." Lavi mumbled as she tried to worm her way out of the pile. "Get your foot out of my face!" She snapped, slapping Ty's leg out of the way. After a bit more grumbling and moaning we finally all made it back to our feet.

"Someone want to explain to me why that thing didn't drop all that crap down here but didn't hesitate in dropping us in?" Thane asked.

Dante shrugged. "Either it was programmed to only drop living things, or targeted us specifically. The first doesn't seem plausible because the place had humans running around in it before we even got there. Some moron was bound to step on it during the fight, then Uncle Raph and Uncle Leo would have caught on to it if they fell through."

"Why us?" Lavi asked.

Mikey's eyes had narrowed. "Not you," he told the teenagers "us. They want the adults."

"Well, they succeeded in getting two of you." I grumbled.

"Getting isn't keeping." He replied in a cold tone. I had to smile at him, he was such a silly goof most of the time, and let Ari get away with everything, but he was just like his brothers when it came to one of being in danger. He would tear the place apart to get them back.

Marina's head snapped around facing the tunnel at our right at the same time pain filled my head. I dropped to my knees with both hands clutching the sides of my head it was so intense. "Mom!" My twins cried out to me at the same time as they both knelt down next to me. Tears were springing to my eyes now, from the pain and from worry. What were they doing to him? _'Leo!' _I pushed through that barrier of agony. Silence was my answer as the pain cut off. He either blocked me out, or he passed out.

I opened eyes I didn't know I had closed to find Mikey kneeling in front of me, watching with worry. "You ok?"

"No." I stubbornly got to my feet with the twins' help. "I won't be ok until we get them back."

"Then lets do that." He grinned at me. "I'm assuming whatever was blocking you two from finding them isn't working anymore?" Marina and I both nodded. "Well then, why are we still standing here?" He swiftly joined his daughter up on the rafters and we all followed suit.

"This way." Marina told us and she swiftly and skillfully navigated the rafters with the rest of us easily following her. The tunnel seemed empty but there was no point on making it easy for the bad guys if we were wrong. There had been a time I would never have been able to do this. Anything that required this much skill would have ended up with one of them, usually Leo, carrying me across. Now I barely even gave it any thought as I raced next to Mikey. My life had changed so much I thought as I watched the twins glide elegantly along. Changed so very much. But I wouldn't trade any of it. I had finally found my place in life and it was next to that blue banded turtle. Now I just had to go get him back.

The tunnel was long, very long. We had to have been following it for at least a half hour or so before we came across a door of all things. Why would there be a door here? My eyes narrowed as I smelled 'set up'. Once again it seemed that we had stumbled across something bigger than it at first appeared. What wacko maniac were we dealing with this time?

Before we could even begin to figure out how to open the door as we all crouched up in the rafters, there was a lot of noise coming from the other side. We could hear screaming and shouting but couldn't make out what was being said. Whatever was going on in there seemed to be doing some major damage though. We were about to jump down and investigate when all of a sudden the doors just exploded outward as something came flying through them. Our gaze followed the robot looking thing as it bounced down the tunnel a few times before it flipped over one last time and came to a stop. Then it was followed by another one that flew even further down due to the lack of a door in the way. What in the world could have done that?

"Where in the hell is my brother you fucking poor excuses for walking garbage disposals! I'll rip every god damn one of you apart!" Well, that explains the flying robots. Hey lookit there, we found Raph.

We all leapt down, ducking another robot, then rushed in. What we found inside was Raph single handedly trying to take on a crap load of these things that had surrounded him. Someone obviously had some spare time on their hands to tinker. Even as we rushed in to help, his sai slammed into one, spearing it. Then he turned and smashed it into the wall behind him. He ripped his sai up as he held it against the wall and ignoring the sparks coming from it, took the thing and began slamming it into another, repeatedly, until both were nothing but a pile of scrap metal. Raph was not a happy turtle. What else was new...

He was focused so much on creating spare parts for the other robots that he wasn't paying attention behind him as one approached. He caught on and spun at about the same time a hook sword emerged from the chest of it. He looked at the weapon a moment, stunned, then his glare snapped up at the individual who was wielding it. "What are you doing here, boy?" He snapped at his son.

"Getting you out of here." Thane replied as he ripped his weapon back out, spinning and smoothly took a head off of another.

"Didn't think we would let you have all the fun did you?" Mikey grinned as he came in, swinging a 'chuck around the arm of one and heaved it off balance, then spun around it as it fell and slammed it in the back with his foot towards Ty who smoothly slammed a katana in the thing's head. I winced a little at that. There was going to be a lot of blade sharpening when we get back home.

Marina came twirling in, her stun knives out and ready. One jammed into an arm and the other slammed into the chest of a second and she turned them on, effectively shorting them out. She lept up and kicked them both off of her blades and they smashed into a group behind her. Ari and I were having a little bit of a harder time with them. Asps and a three sectioned staff really didn't do much damage, so we had to improvise. We relied on our strength more than our weapons. Even at her young age she was stronger than me so she held onto the things to hold them steady while I would come in with well placed kicks, ripping off whatever part she happened to be holding. Ty and Lavi were also working together, she would kick or punch them towards her brother with the blades and he would finish them off. Dante and Thane were working on clearing out the group around Raph to give him more fighting room.

Overall I wasn't to impressed with these silly things. They seemed to just trying to stall the big guy, and even Mikey now and to a lesser degree the teenagers, Marina and I they hardly noticed. It looks like Dante had had been right, they were targeting the older turtles. I guess the didn't reckon with how much damage they could do. Boys were tearing some shit up.

"You know, this is kinda fun!" Ari grinned at me, her stitched up arm apparently healed enough to where it wasn't even slowing her down as we tore another one apart. I couldn't help but smile at her. She was quiet a lot, like her mother but she definitely had her father's joy for fighting. "Hey Daddy! Catch!" She told him as he landed next to her. She grabbed another arm and twirled the rest of the robot around towards him and he grabbed the other arm. Then together they tore the thing to pieces. I sidestepped another one as a katana came over my shoulder to use the space I had just vacated to take out the thing's head. "Mom, you really need a sword or something." My son told me.

"Boy, I've been using these asps since before you were born. I'm not giving up on them now." I replied. "Remember that teamwork conversation you had with your father?" He nodded as he took out another one. "This is also where that applies."

"She's right kiddo." Mikey told him. "We all have our strengths and weaknesses. You have to learn to work around each other."

"Not the best time to be lecturing." Raph snarled. "I say we conclude the theoretical part of the lesson and work on the practical part." And so we did as we plowed through the rest of the robots. There was a blade paired with a blunt and together we slammed and sliced our way to victory.

"Aww... No more?" Thane asked as the last one dropped to the floor in pieces.

"Not bad." Raph grudgingly admitted. "Now I do believe we have a Leo to find."

"Hey!" Mikey protested. "This is my operation! I'm in charge." The sound of a well placed smack and a few giggles echoed across the hallway we were in before we went to look for our missing turtle.


	7. Chapter 7

Stealth was pointless at this point, so we didn't even bother to try being stealthy. We charged through the place following Marina as she guided us through this maze. Uncle Raph had told us as we ran that they had been hit hard with a hard electric shock after they had fell through the chute. Father had been instantly knocked out with a direct hit, but Uncle Raph managed to dodge most of the blast but it still downed him for awhile. After arriving here he had managed to get away from his robot captors shortly after regaining his full senses in that hall way. He had been looking for Father ever since.

"I don't get it." Ari asked confused. She had been quiet for the most part since we found Uncle Raph. But something was obviously bothering her. "If Aunt Marina, Aunt Vicky and the scanners couldn't find you before, Uncle Raph, why all of a sudden can they now?"

That was enough to make him stop so fast his feet slid along the smooth metal floor for a few feet, and make Uncle Mikey crash into him. The rest of us managed to stop without crashing into anyone. Annoyed he pushed his little brother away as he looked at his youngest niece. "Girl, I don't know how Mikey managed to father a kid with brains inside of that head instead of air. Must get it from your mother."

Ok, now I was confused too. And from the befuddled look on my twin, so was he. Mother was however giving Ari that same thoughtful look Uncle Raph was. "Did it again didn't we?"

"Yup. Blundered right into a trap." Uncle Raph told her.

"Well it's not a trap if we know it's a trap." Uncle Mikey grinned.

Ok I was understanding nothing. "Someone want to explain for us not so bright turtles?"

Dante had a wry expression on his face as he looked at me. "Simple. It's obvious that there was something blocking any means to track them. Whoever it was must have realized there were only two turtles caught instead of four, so in an attempt to get the other two-"

"They turned the blocker off to try and lure them in." Ty finished and Dante nodded. "Great. Well, I think they are going to get more turtles than they bargained for."

"Be careful." Uncle Raph told us as we moved out again. "And keep your eyes peeled."

"Peeled eyeballs, now there is a mental image." Uncle Mikey said.

"Eeww, your disgusting." Ari giggled.

"I try." He grinned back at her as we ran on.

Suddenly cursing Aunt Marina came to a stop, once again causing a crash behind her. The sound of Uncle Raph's smack and a "_Will_ you stop that!" rang out before she turned to us. "I lost him." She snapped out, obviously furious.

"They figured out something went wrong and turned whatever it is back on." Mother said, "Now what?"

Dante however was playing around with his father's gear. "I'm close enough now to where I can pick up a reading on where it's coming from. They can block it from a long way off, but when we are practically under their noses it's not so easy. But it's coming from back the way we came."

The adults exchanged quick glances. "Split up?" Mother asked.

"Two adults per team." Uncle Raph agreed. "Mikey, Dante and Ty with me. We'll go shut that thing down. It might be guarded."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "While you leave us girls to go find a possibly equally guarded Leo."

"Yeah, but your team has you. I'd hate to be that sorry ass who decides to get into your way while you try to get to him." He grinned at her. "Vic, you and Leo can take on a whole fucking army by yourselves when the other is in danger."

"Point taken." She grinned back. "Each group then tracks the other so we can meet back up."

He nodded. "I'm sending Thane with you. I have no idea what condition Leo is in and he might need help. He's a strong kid, he'll be able to handle it."

"Then let's move." And we did. Once again our now smaller group followed Aunt Marina as she went towards the last direction that she knew for sure Father was. Luckily for us the hallway didn't branch off in any other directions, yet.

Suddenly Aunt Marina slowed to a walk, her eyes narrowing. "We must be getting close. I can feel him again, it's muffled but there."

"How far?" Mother asked her.

"Just up the hallway. Careful now." She addressed us teenagers. "Don't want to let them know we are here until the last minute."

"This is where Leo would drop his infamous 'We need to be quiet' line." Mother muttered and Aunt Marina shot her a tight grin.

We slowly walked up to the door Aunt Marina led us to and the two mothers looked over the door. "Of course they wouldn't make it easy." Mother whispered. There wasn't anything there to get the door open. No handle nothing. The only there was some kind of panel on one side. "Anyone want to take a guess on how to open this thing?"

"My guess is on eye scan." Aunt Marina answered as she scanned the hallway, her eye stopped at a small vent. "Ari, come here." The small blonde haired teen walked over to her. "You think you can fit in that?"

"I guess I better find out." Thane lifted her up and she scurried into the vent. "I'll see if I can find a way in."

"I hope she don't have any trouble getting to that door." Mother said. "Mikey will kill us if something happens to her."

"She's the only one that can fit." Aunt Marina told her.

"I know that, doesn't mean he won't snap."

We waited, hoping nothing would surprise us. "Is it just me or is this place a little to quiet." Thane spoke up. "You think there would be something going on right now. They obviously know we are here."

Suddenly more of those robot things came around the opposite corner than we came through. I glared at my cousin as they meandered down the hallway. "You and your big mouth!"

"Sorry." He mumbled as he pulled out his blades. However, before they could reach us the door opened behind us and Ari popped her head out.

"Door's open." She said with a grin then got out of the way as we rushed through behind her, slamming the door shut behind us. We ended up in some kind of control room, it was obvious on how she got the door open with an unconsious man on the floor under the panel on this side. A red mark on his face matching the same size and shape. It looked like she just rammed his face into the thing to get the eye scan she needed. "Sorry, I tried to get to him before he hit the alarm button but he was to quick."

"Don't worry about it." Aunt Marina told her. "Let's just find Leo and get out of here."

She led the way to another door and this one opened easily. She pulled it open and Mother quickly popped her head in to look around. "Leo..." She charged into the room without another thought with the rest of us following her. Father was there, hanging by his wrists and ankles against the far wall by some kind of metal cuffs, his head slumped forward and he wasn't moving. Mother and I both got to him first and I began to try and figure out how to open the cuffs. "Leo, wake up." Mother told him, raising his head up. "Shit!" She snapped when he didn't respond.

Thane had walked over to a table on the other side where his weapons were placed and gathered up the katanas and various shurikan and kunai Father always kept on him. "Where does he hide all this stuff? Lord he carries more throwing stuff on him than Mom does."

Aunt Marina was looking at the cuffs I was still trying to pry open. "Careful, Lavi. Those things are electrified." She warned me. "Probably how they have been keeping him subdued."

"How do we get them off?" I didn't know how to open them and I was getting frustrated. It hurt seeing my Father hanging like that, like some kind of lab experiment. Damn it, why did humans always have to do this to things that were different than them? All Father has ever done was risk his neck to help them and this was the thanks he gets? I looked around and saw three more sets of those cuffs on the wall, obviously meant for my uncles. I was furious.

"There is probably a switch on the control panel in the other room. It might not be a good idea to go randomly pushing buttons to find it though."

"I'm glad we didn't bring Casey then." Mother muttered as she still kept trying to wake Father up. "He'd be banging on the stupid thing with a golf club again."

Aunt Marina flashed a quick smile at that. "Let me try something while he is still out." She pulled out her knives and carefully wedged them inside the cuffs around his ankles, then switched them on. She was rewarded by them popping open. "Thane, come here and hold him." My large cousin came over and placed his shoulder under an arm and wrapped his own arms around my Father the best he could. Then Aunt Marina repeated the process with the wrist cuffs and again they popped open and Father slid down and Thane caught him. Quickly he laid Father on the floor and Mother knelt next to him.

"Come on, Leo. Wake up." She whispered to him, her voice full of concern.

She laid a hand on his cheek then closed her eyes for a moment. I felt something ripple in my head, almost like a shout that I heard from very far away and I looked at her curiously. She took a deep breath and tried again and again I felt it in my head. This time his eyes slowly opened. He still looked a bit rough, but he was awake. His eyes quickly scanned around him before he even made an attempt to move, then locked onto Mother's. "You scream pretty loud." He smiled gently up at her.

"I have to when I live with stubborn turtles."

"I see some faces that I thought I told to stay in the van. Someone want to tell me what the hell is going on?" He asked as he struggled to sit up. Once he was up he put a hand on his head and grimaced with pain. "I don't know what's worse, the shocks they gave me or you screaming in my head."

Suddenly he was buried under mother as she wrapped him in a fierce hug, barely beating me to it as I latched onto the other side. I felt his arm wrap around me pulling me close. "Daddy..." I choked out, emotion overcoming me as I finally processed that we had found him and was able to see he was alive. I didn't realize how scared I actually was.

"It's alright." He told us softly as he still held us close. "I'm fine." He held us for a moment longer, obviously just as happy to see us as we were to see him, despite his earlier gripe about me and my cousins being here. "Come on, we need to find Raph." He let us go and struggled to get his feet as we helped him up, he was a little wobbly but he was up. Thane was next to him in an instant to support him.

"We already found him. We split up so he could take care of whatever was blocking us from finding you." Mother told him.

"What?" He looked a little stunned, then turned to Aunt Marina. "You mean they were able to block you out?"

She nodded as Mother spoke up. "Not just her, I couldn't feel you either."

He frowned as he processed that. Then his eyes got wide. "Donnie and Mikey!"

"They are fine." Aunt Marina told him. "Mikey is with Raph and the boys, and Donnie is probably back at the lair right now. We had Cris, Dennis and Amy take him home. He hurt his leg, possibly broke it, but he's safe."

He closed his eyes in relief for a moment. "I don't know about you, but I'm ready to get out of here."

"No argument there." Mother told him and led the way back the way we came.

I went to Father's other side and helped Thane with him. He was obviously hurting and for him to accept the help meant that he really needed it.

Mother stopped at the door that had the eye scanner on it. "This is going to be interesting." She murmured. "I'm willing to bet that our metal friends are still out there."

Father looked down at me. "Lavi, take my katanas. They will be more useful than your tonfas." I was shocked. I couldn't take his swords! They were _his_. He smiled at my stunned face. "Just take them. Now is not the moment to get possessive over my weapons. You know how to use them and they will serve you better than me right now."

Thane took a moment to hand Mother his hook swords. This time she took them without complaint, she knew just as well as Father did that her asps would do no good against robots and we were now a smaller group, not to mention burdened with an injured member of the family. We couldn't afford the luxury of being weapons picky. Quickly she passed one to Ari as Thane handed me the katanas and I slipped out from under Father's arm so I could tuck the sheathes in my belt then drew the swords and placed myself by the door. Aunt Marina picked up the still form of the man on the floor and Ari pried his eye open before she positioned it it front of the scanner. With a click the door opened and we rushed out, right into the middle of the group of robots waiting for us. This bunch seemed a little more...aggressive I could say. They actually put up more of a fight.

I rushed out, ducking under a grabbing arm then spun and sliced the borrowed katana across the midsection of the thing. I was impressed on how smooth Father's katanas cut into the thing as sparks came from the now damaged robot. He always did keep his blades sharp, very sharp. He could split an already split hair with these things.

Ari was having to much fun with her robot. She took an arm off then spun around it and did the same thing to the other arm. Then laughed as the stupid thing kept trying to come after her before she took it's head off and kicked it across the hall. "Heads up!" She giggled.

"Lord, she's as bad as Mikey." Father sighed from right behind me.

"It's to be expected." Mother smiled as she dodged around her own robot, leaving behind a shower of falling robot parts.

Aunt Marina had just dismembered her own pair and she paused as they lay sparking at her feet. Then her head snapped around. "They did it. What ever was blocking me, it's gone."

"Good, it should make meeting up with them easier." Mother replied as the last of this group fell under our blades.

I again moved over to Father's other side and once again slipped under his arm to support him. Mother shot him a quick, worried look as he struggled to walk and again I felt that strange flitter in my head. And again as he returned her look. I could almost, but not quite, hear them. Again curiosity took over but was suppressed as we followed Aunt Marina down the hall.

"So does anyone know where these robodorks came from?" Thane asked as we slowly made our way down the halls.

Father sighed. "I don't know." He answered as he stumbled. Thane and I steadied him as he lost his balance, frustration was now taking hold of him as he whispered a curse under his breath. Then he frowned at the contraptions that littered the hallway. "These aren't the same type that caught me however."

"Oh great." Aunt Marina muttered as we walked along. "You mean there are different _kinds?_"

"So why aren't sending the dangerous ones?" Thane asked. "Why keep sending us these robot pushovers?"

"They are testing us." Ari said quietly as she was still thinking it through. "They didn't expect humans and more turtles to come into the mix, so they don't know how good we actually are. So they are sending them out in batches. I'm thinking the first batch we came across was the mark one version, these were mark two. They will increasingly get harder the longer we stay until we work our way up to the ones who caught Uncle Leo and Uncle Raph."

"This is creepy." Aunt Marina said, still leading us. "That mix of Caitlin and Mikey in her head is a strange combination."

"Then why don't they just send the tough robots out for us?" Thane asked the smaller turtle.

"Because they are either busy somewhere else, or someone has a twisted sense of entertainment. Sending them out to test us to see how we respond. Or maybe a combination of both." She calmly replied. We all instantly knew what the 'busy somewhere else' likely meant.

Father was regarding the blonde girl intently, then actually shuddered. "That is creepy." He mumbled just loud enough for Thane and I to hear and we shot him a grin. "How much farther?" He asked Marina.

Before she could answer there was a crash ahead of us as a door was kicked outwards, followed by my missing male relatives. They skidded on the slick metal floor as they made a sharp turn towards us as they shot out of the door. "Not that way!" Uncle Mikey yelled as they ran towards us, the hallway behind them filling up with what looked like small bolts of lightning. "Big bad robots with zappy guns back there!"

We all looked at Ari, a little stunned. "Told you so." She smiled. Then she ducked as a blast came towards her.

Uncle Raph almost crashed into us and he shoved me out of the way as he took up my position. I didn't complain one bit, just got out of the way. Between him and his almost as strong son they easily carried Father along as we turned tail and ran. "When I find out who made those things, I'm going to rearrange his face." Uncle Raph muttered.

"How about you quit trying to improve your cosmetic surgery skills and worry about getting out of here." Father told him.

"Yeah, we were kinda lacking on the escape plan." Mikey grinned and Father sighed.

"Dante!" Father called to my cousin and he moved forward to run alongside us. "Can you find us a way out of here?"

The yellow banded turtle began scanning even as we kept moving. It's a good thing those things didn't have a good aim. A shot missed me close enough for me to feel the electric charge. They were rapidly getting better.

Dante was mumbling, frustrated, as he was looking over his readings. "We are on the wrong side of the complex. The only exit I can find is on the other side."

"Yay for us." Ty sighed.

"It could be worse." Thane said, just as we were cut off in the front by more of those shockerbots. We all skidded to a stop as they took aim at us. "That could happen."

I looked at him in irritation. "You have a knack for jinxing us, you know that?" He just shrugged.

"Down!" Father snapped and we all dropped to the floor as both sets of robots opened fire again, the results being them taking each other out. The hallway was starting to fill up with smoke from all the explosions coming from the robotcidale things as the barrage continued.

"We need to get out of here!" Ari screeched.

"Why does someone always have to say that?" Father muttered. "We all know we need to get out of here but yet someone always has to say that."

"It's about as annoying as your 'Be quiet!'s." Uncle Raph grinned at him.

"Oh shut up."

"I hate to interrupt the bonding moment, but there are more coming!" Mother snapped at them.

Father took a quick look around as those robots started moving in again, keeping us pinned as they kept firing. He then exchanged a grim look with Uncle Raph and Uncle Mikey. "We need to get them out." He said softly, I was sure I wasn't supposed to hear him, but I did.

"Leo, it's us they want." Uncle Mikey said just as quiet. "Not the kids."

Uncle Raph was looking around us, his face grim. "We need to open them up a way out, and keep it open."

"We won't make it out of here." Father told him.

"Then so be it." Uncle Raph reached over and took the katanas back from me and handed them to Father. I was looking at them all with a combination of shock and fear. I did not want to leave them here. I wanted to go home as a family, all of us, together. I felt my anger rising at them even hinting about sacrificing themselves just so we could get out. I also knew any protest I made would fall on deaf ears.

Father's eyes met mine and I knew then that he knew that I had heard everything. He reached across Uncle Raph and took my hand. "It'll be ok." He told me as Uncle Raph also took in my shocked face.

"No it won't!" I snapped back at him. "It won't be ok! I don't want to leave you here!"

He sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. "Lavi, please. It's the-"

He was suddenly cut off as the wall in front of us suddenly just disappeared in a bright flash of orange and red flames, consuming the metal forms slowly closing in on us, and the sound was deafening as it shook the hallway. If we hadn't already be on the floor we would've been knocked down. Heat washed over us as we covered our heads and the lights flickered and went out leaving us in darkness. Behind us, from the area where the other group was, there was another ear shattering blast as once again flames ripped into the hallway, lighting it up as bright as day for a moment, and heat flew over us. Stunned, and now also coughing because of the smoke from burning internal robot parts now scattered everywhere that filled the hallway a moment before it started drift outside, we looked up.

"Holy mother of god." Uncle Raph whispered in shocked disbelief at the total destruction around us.

We all got shakily to our feet, Thane and Ty helping Father up, as a figure came walking through the smoke filled hallway, more than likely coming in through the hole in the wall in front of us. Not being able to clearly see through the smoke and darkness on who it was we readied our weapons. "You stupid, careless, idiotic, son of a bitch!" Came a familiar voice out of the smoke and we lowered our weapons. "I should beat your ass so hard you won't be able to sit down for a week! How dare you scare me like that!"

"Oh lord..." Uncle Raph muttered a moment before a figure slammed into him, and ignoring everyone around her Aunt Cris wrapped her arms around his neck and locked her lips to his in a fierce kiss.

Father looked on with a raised eyeridge. "We are fine too, thanks for asking." Mother nudged her elbow into his side. Smiling he wrapped an arm around her. "If you two are done, it might not be a bad idea to get out of here."

Aunt Cris pulled back from Uncle Raph and looked around a little embarrassed. He had a goofy look on his face, right until she smacked him on the arm. "Don't do that shit again." She told him.

"Yes ma'am." He replied as he wrapped his arms around her.

"Hey! You guys having a damn picnic in here or what?" Amy hollered through the hole in the wall behind us. "Dennis is picking up more of those things coming and Cris used up all of Donnie's explosives!"

"Donnie had explosives?" Mother asked incredulously as she gently led Father towards the hole. Ty was still on his other side.

"I told you before, he's a closet pyro." Father told her.

"Not anymore. Cris cleaned him out, he wasn't to happy about that." Amy grinned.

"A little over kill don't you think?" Aunt Marina asked Aunt Cris with a raised eyebrow.

"Not under these circumstances. They had my baby and I wanted him back."

"It's so nice to be loved." Uncle Raph grinned.

"How did you get his fireworks away from him?" Uncle Mikey asked her.

"I threatened to break his other leg."

Uncle Raph facepalmed as we made our way to the van. "I'm never going to hear the end of this."

"Probably not." Father grinned at him.

"Dude...remind me never to piss your mother off." Dante quietly told Thane, who swallowed hard and nodded in agreement.

As we approached the van the door opened and Dennis stepped out to help Father up. "We need to go. That blast set off all kinds of alarms in the area. This place is going to be swarming with cops and fire department soon." Father just wearily nodded as he sat down in a seat. Dennis went to the driver's seat as Ari closed the doors behind her and got the thing moving.

I wearily sat down next to Father on the bench seat, not ready to let him out of my sight just yet. The scare of almost loosing him was still fresh in me and I needed his closeness right now. He seemed to feel that need in me and wrapped an arm around me and pulled me close to him and I wrapped my arms around him again. I was glad he was here but I also felt bitter, so bitter. Why was this even done to him? And who did it? But what bothered me the most was his willingness to stay behind so we could get out.

"You ok?" Uncle Raph came and sat across from us, Aunt Cris sliding into the bench next to him. She wormed her way around him in a similar hold that I had Father in.

"I'm not sure." Father honestly told him. "I'm having problems with my legs." He sighed in frustration. Again anger flashed in me. How dare they? How _dare_ they!

Father looked down at me a moment with a small frown on his face but kept quiet before he turned his attention back to my uncle. "What was the whole point of this whole set up tonight?" Uncle Raph wondered out loud. "None of it makes any sense."

"Wouldn't be the first time we've stumbled into something we didn't understand." Father replied.

Uncle Mikey leaned on the chair Uncle Raph was sitting in, easily keeping his balance in the moving vehicle. "Donnie made us gather up what was left of that thing that exploded, I'm pretty sure he is playing with them now."

"Why? It was just a bomb, wasn't it?"

Uncle Mikey shook his head. "Donnie doesn't think so, Leo."

"So...Who set us up? Dragons or Rouges?" Mother asked from where she stood behind Father.

"I bet Dragons." Uncle Mikey said. "They've been acting funny the last few weeks."

"No way to know right now. Hell it could even be a third party pulling the strings from behind the scenes. This could have been an elaborate setup just for us or it could be someone who just seized the opportunity." Father sighed. "We just don't have enough information."

The three brothers exchanged determined looks. "Well then, I guess we need to gather it." Uncle Raph said and Father nodded.

"Not until Donnie and Cait have looked you over." Mother said firmly to Father.

"I'm sure I'll be fine in a little bit." He protested. "We need to move now while the leads are fresh."

She was having none of it as she marched around the bench seat, put her hands on her hips and glared down at him. "No. We are going home, you will get looked over or I swear to god I'll put your leg in the same condition Donnie's is in!" She almost yelled at him. The van was deathly quiet as they all looked at her in shock.

Father watched her, his eyes narrowing a little before they softened. "All right, home it is." He said quietly as he took in Mother's determined face, that almost hid the tears in her eyes. Obviously she had been just as scared for him as I was and she didn't want him going back out right now.

"See what happens when you threaten them with bodily harm?" Aunt Cris grinned. "They actually listen."


	8. Chapter 8

I once again found myself supported as we arrived in the garage. This time it was Ty and Lavi that guided me inside. He was telling me all about how they had snuck in and found Raph before splitting up to find me and take out that, whatever it was. As you would figure he was excited about his first actual mission and I was actually proud of the way they both handled themselves, along with their cousins. Even young Ari had held her own very well, and that was with an injured shoulder. Over all they did better than I had thought they would.

Where Ty was babbling on with his excitement filled stream of words, Lavi was quiet. She always was the quietest of the two but this time I sensed there was something more behind it than her usual tendency to just let her brother take the lead in any conversation. I could tell in the van already, hell in that hallway even before Cris blew it all to shit, that there was something really bothering her. So even as I listened to my son, and commenting on areas he could improve on, I watched my withdrawn daughter. She was just like her mother in the aspect of having a bad habit of locking up what bothered her inside. Somehow I knew that the night's events were far from over for her. Physically they all could handle themselves, mentally I wasn't so sure now. Maybe I had acted to rash in allowing them to go out with us, but then again, how do you deal with these things if you aren't exposed to them? It was just our dumb turtle luck that their first outing was marred to such an extreme. Still, waking up from Vicky's very loud mental scream to see Lavi kneeling next to her with fear and worry imprinted on her face was not what I wanted from a first outing.

I staggered into the lair on my still not wanting to work right legs with my also worried mate following behind with a worried frown on her face. Honestly I wasn't without worry myself, it was unusual for any of us to not shake off these shocks after a short time. Yet here I was still not able to walk right. The twins didn't even stop once we came inside but went straight to Donnie's lab.

We entered to find Donnie sitting in his chair with a now casted leg propped up on another one talking quietly to Caitlin. Both of them broke off their conversation when we came in. "Leo! Thank god you're alright." Donnie said as he struggled to get up, only to be pushed back into the chair by Caitlin. His relief on seeing me was just about as big as mine seeing him. The last time I remembered seeing him was right before that big giant boom. He gave Caitlin a slightly irritated look before he scooted over to the lab bed the twins had sat me on in his wheeled chair. It was actually a little amusing to see him push himself around with his good leg in that thing. "What's wrong?"

"I'm not sure Donnie, I can't seem to get my legs to work right."

"It seems to be a leg day today." He sighed as he began to scan me over with his little med scanner he kept in the lab. "What happened after we got seperated?"

"I'm not altogether sure. I remember falling with Raph through that hole and as soon as we hit the bottom there were some of those robot things that ambushed us."

"With damn electricity guns or sometin'." Raph supplied as he walked in.

I struggled to bring my thoughts together on what happened after that, not that I was awake enough during that time to put anything together. "I remember waking back up, briefly, before they shocked me back into lala land."

"I felt that one." Vicky said from where she was standing next to me, her hand reaching out for mine and took it. It always amazed me how small her hand felt in mine, even after all this time.

I looked over at her with a smile. "Then the next thing I know I hear someone screaming 'If you don't wake your ass up, right fucking now, I'll have Mikey turn your martial arts book collection into his personal paint by numbers collection!' in my head. I figured I better listen to that threat. I'm sorry Donnie, that's all I can tell you."

He chuckled a little at that. "Only with you would that threat work." He said before he grew quiet as he looked over his screen, a brief frown crossed his face. "Try to swing your legs a little." I did as I was told, swinging my legs back and forth a few times and feeling a little silly doing it. Again a brief frown crossed his face as he looked at his readings. Those frowns weren't making me feel better. "Nerve damage." He said finally after a few more minutes, looking up at me. "Leo, I'm not sure how long this will take to heal, your out of commision for awhile."

I looked back at him with a sinking feeling in my stomach. This had to happen now? With a new threat out there? "It will heal though?"

"Eventually, yes. The mutagen is already working on repairing the damage. Honestly if we were normal this would be a permanent thing. Lacking further information, I'm assuming the level of shocks they gave you wrecked havoc on your nervous system."

"If we were normal, we wouldn't be here in the first place." Raph said.

"The down side is that the mutagen is mainly in our blood, so it's going to take awhile to get past all of the muscle tissue to filter down to the effected nerves. Don't help either that he has a lot of muscles."

"I kinda like those muscles." Vicky murmured.

Donnie shot her a quick grin. "I bet you do...and I'm certain a special one really peaks your interest. That one is still working fine by the way."

I raised an eye ridge at her as she started to blush a little. She is so adorable when she blushes.

"Not in front of the kids Donnie!" She stammered out as the twins let out a couple of chuckles.

"Sorry, couldn't help myself there. You just left yourself wide open...and I don't mean the legs either."

"Donnie!" She was blushing hard now. I knew I should take pity on her, but this was actually a little funny. I did pull her into my arms in a hug though, so she could at least hide her embarrassment. That and I loved the feel of her against me. It wasn't often anymore that we could just sit and hold each other anymore, something always seemed to come up. Especially lately with the Dragons being up to something and us spending almost every night trying to figure out what. So I took every chance I got to just hold her, I guess I should thank Donnie for his teasing.

There had been a time when my geeky brother wouldn't have teased anyone like that. Out of all of us he had always been the shyest. Even thinking of certain male/female activities would send him into a blushing frenzy. It was worst when we were teens but he had grown to a certain level of comfort on the subject. Still if you asked him a direct question about certain, functions, he would blush up and shut up.

Marina exploded into that quiet, shy world like a comet. He was now forced to abandon the shy nerdy boy routine and actually face those feelings that made him uncomfortable before. Unfortunately Marina's allegiance at the time had made him make some very unDonnie like decisions. The resulting chaos resulting from that disaster bonded those two as close together as Vicky and I are. We might not talk about that time, but in a way we were grateful for it. Now we had a Donnie that still had his dry sense of humor but with added arsenal. He was quite amusing to be around now and could match Mikey joke for joke about any topic without having to give in with a blushing loss.

"Your are so wrong." Caitlin slapped his shoulder, with a chuckle of her own.

"I know." He grinned at her. "So, any other injuries I need to know about?"

"Just a few cuts and scrapes." Raph said from where he was leaning against the wall. "Besides our wobbly wonder over there we all came out pretty intact."

"So Cris didn't kill anyone with those explosives?"

"Nope, she timed it perfectly." Raph grinned at him. "And she used all of them."

"She's a bit feisty when she's pissed I noticed. I bet that's a mess I wouldn't want to clean up." That was the understatement of the year. Feisty doesn't even begin to explain Cris when she gets mad, or worried.

"Donnie, you have no idea..."

"Oh I think I do have an idea." He laughed. "I know what she bullied me into giving her, and what it can do."

"Why do you even keep that stuff?" Vicky asked him curiously, finally getting the blushing under control enough to face him again.

"Same reason why I keep everything else that we never use, someday we might need it."

I shook my head. "Typical Donnie, always thinking ahead."

"Well, one of us has too. Speaking of, where is my son? I want to look over the readings that he picked up with my pack."

"He's still in the garage. Dennis is downloading all the info he picked up from the van into your pack. They both should be here in a little bit." Raph answered.

"Good. I'll dive into it when he gets here."

"Now? Do you have any idea how late it is?"

I had to laugh a little at that one. "Raph, you should know better by now."

"True, I should. But us older brothers have to worry about the younger ones."

"Oh, come off it." Donnie mumbled at him. "I'm all grown up now, I even have my own kid."

"Old habits die hard. Not to mention you should be setting him a good example."

Donnie just rolled his eyes. "Like you have room to talk."

"Just let me know what you find out." I told him as I carefully shifted my weight to get up.

"Always do." Donnie replied.

Once again Lavi was the first one to worm her way under my arm and with the help from the twins I made my way out of the lab. Now that the mandatory 'you will let Donnie look you over' check up was done I could focus on something else.

I paused at the lab doorway to look over the living area. Mikey and Thane were having a video game contest and the racket was blaring. Cris wasn't helping from where she was yelling at them to turn the shit down because she couldn't hear herself think. Marina was sitting next to her on the couch also giving the video game enthusiasts a nasty glare. How Ari could sit in the chair nearby and read a book I don't know. Point was here, it was way too noisy.

I looked over the noisy mess in something akin to defeat, there was no way I was going to get any quiet here and they were all so hyped up that if I made them turn it off they would just move on to something else, just as painful on the ears. "I'm going to bed." I sighed.

"Might not be a bad idea." Vicky agreed as she looked around the noisy living area. "It might be safer on the sanity until they wind down enough to pass out."

"I'm about to make them pass out another way." Cris grumbled. "Turn that shit down!" Why was she even bothering, it was only like the tenth time she tried that.

Slowly, and I have to admit a little frustratingly, I made my way to my room in the lair. Even though I usually slept with Vicky in her room I was to tired to make my way over there. Once the twins had helped get to my bed Ty helped me unsling my sheaths. "I'm glad you are ok Dad." He said as he leaned them against the wall. "I'll take a bite out of my teen pride and say that I was worried there for a little bit." I was wondering how long it would take him to say something. Lavi had by now sat next to me on the bed, playing with the end of her long braid.

"Son, I had myself worried there for a little bit." I told him. "Let this be your first major lesson, anything can happen out there."

"Always with the lessons?" He said quietly. "Just once, once, can I just say something without the reply being some kind of lecture?" With a fair amount of shock I noticed the tears he was trying to hold back behind his dark grey mask.

I found myself looking at how I treat them as I watched him struggle to remain strong. I loved them, there was no doubt in my mind that I did. Never had I thought that they would one day stand before me. Never had thought the possibility would even be given to me. Yet here they were, my two wonders. Wonders that were just starting to learn that the world wasn't as kind to us as it was to normal humans. We have to face things that most others would never even consider and one of those things had scared them, bad. They didn't need a lecture right now, they needed reassurance that their Dad was still in one piece. Ty was standing there, the fear of what happened tonight finally taking a hold on him like it did Lavi earlier. I may be their ninjitsu trainer but I was also their father, somewhere I had lost sight of that tonight. I reached out and grabbed his arm and pulled my now stunned son to the bed on the other side of me before I wrapped him in an embrace, one he returned after a shocked few moments.

"I'm sorry, Titian. That wasn't what you needed to hear just now. Maybe I just need to turn the sensei off for a few moments and just be your Father." I then removed an arm from him and pulled his sister close and she once again clung to me like she did in the van. "Your uncles and I have learned to shrug these things off and I thought you would too. I'm sorry."

"I love you Daddy." Lavi whispered into my chest and I let a small smile form on my lips. It wasn't often that they called me Daddy anymore, I kind of missed it actually.

"I love you too, Lil' Bit. I love you both very much. I just forget to show it sometimes I guess." We sat there quietly, just taking comfort in each other's presence. Me trying to take the fear and worry from them and they just reaffirming the fact that yes, I was still alive and kicking. Maybe not as hard as I usually do, but still kicking.

A somewhat embarrassed Ty pulled back first. At sixteen, almost seventeen, he did have a reputation to hold onto after all, it just wouldn't do for one of his cousins to catch him in a mushy moment with his dad. Lavi wasn't quite ready to let go yet. "It's ok. I think I finally understand what you all go through, a little anyway. It's not the fun and games we always thought it would be."

"Mikey might disagree with you on that one." I told him with a smile. "He always seems to keep his sense of humor, no matter how rough things get up there."

"Well, Uncle Mikey isn't normal, so he don't count." Ty grinned back at me. "If you need something, Dad, just let me know." I just nodded and he turned and left the room.

Now was the time to turn my attention to my daughter who still had a deathgrip on me. "What's bothering you little one?" I asked as I wrapped my free arm around her also. "I have a feeling it's more than me getting caught."

She didn't answer me at first as she kept her head buried in my chest. Unconsciously I began to stroke her hair like I did when she was a child. The calming motion always seemed to calm her down after a bad dream or some other fear hit her hard. Again, it was something that happened a lot more when they were younger. It seemed to me now they were growing up way to fast for my liking.

"I just don't understand...why do humans do this? Why is their first impulse to destroy anything different than them? To hurt it, cause it so much pain like they obviously caused you tonight. Don't they care that you might have someone at home who might need you? Why do you keep fighting for them?"

I took a long moment to try and find a reply for her questions. It wasn't easy. Truth be told she was voicing something that had crossed all the adult turtles' minds more than once. "Lavi, honey, we have spent a lifetime dealing with humans who would rather see us dead, I will admit that." I told her softly. "Our father knew from the beginning that we wouldn't be accepted for what we are up there and he tried to shelter us just as we tried to shelter you from it. Why do they act that way? Fear, mistrust play the biggest part. Humans fear what they don't know and understand and that ranges from mutated turtles to something as simple as a new cold bug. And unfortunately their first impulse as a whole is to destroy or try to control whatever new thing pops up. I'm not saying they all will act like that, but enough of them do. Hell they can't even keep from killing each other up there."

"Then why do you risk your own life for them? Numerous times?"

"Because, there are those who cannot defend themselves and those are usually the ones who get hurt with these schemes that keep popping up. How many innocent children have lost parents to the likes of the Dragons? Bishop? Stockman? We deal with them because we are the only ones who can. Unfortunately, this paints us as targets to those groups. We cut into their operations and that cuts into another human vice, their greed. It's the way those nutjobs up there think. No one said humans were smart as a whole, we just try to help the ones who would otherwise get hurt by their antics. I know it's not the answer you want to hear, but it's what this family has stood for and will keep standing for. Please child, don't let this one incident taint your view on all of them. There are some out there that have helped us on more than one occasion."

"Like April and Casey?"

"They aren't the only ones, just the ones that help us the most." I held her a bit tighter for a moment. "There is also a lot of good up there, if you don't blind yourself with the bad."

"I don't know Dad, tonight really opened my eyes to some things. I'm not sure what to think right now."

"I know it's not easy. I wish it were, but it's not. These are answers you have to find for yourself really on if you want to walk this path. And I don't blame you if you want to give up the whole patrol thing. I'm starting to wonder myself if it was a good idea to start you guys on it."

"No, I won't give it up. If anything I want to go just so I can keep an eye on you. It seems like Uncle Mikey isn't the only one for having a knack of getting into trouble."

"We all have our moments of shame." I shrugged. "Never said we were perfect. Your Uncle Raph will deny that until his last breath though."

She actually laughed at that one as she finally pulled away to look into my grinning face. "Thanks for listening." She leaned in to kiss my cheek.

"Anytime. Lavi, I may be a stuck up, rule following, overprotective turtle, but I'm still your father. If you need to talk, I'll listen."

She gave me a quick hug before she got up and slowly walked out the door, passing her mother who was leaning on the frame. Vicky watched her go for a moment before she walked in, closing the door behind her. "Everything ok?"

"It is now, I hope. I think they were more scared than they at first let on."

"Don't really blame them, hell I was scared." She replied as she sat next to me.

I wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close. "I know, I could tell by the screaming in my head." I kissed her hair softly as she snuggled up next to me.

"So, any ideas on what we do now?"

"Nothing until Donnie looks over the data from tonight." I told her. "But I know what i'm going to do on a more personal level."

"Oh? And what is that?"

"Maybe cut back on the overbearing trainer and act more like a dad. I just had my eyes opened that maybe I'm letting the one overshadow the other."

"Maybe the twins and I weren't the only ones who got scared tonight."

"Maybe you're right. I was scared as I sat here with them to talk. I don't want them to remember me as Sensei, I want them to remember me as Dad. I worried so much about their skills that I let a lot of quality time go to waste."

"Not too late to change that. It's just like everything else in your life, it's all about finding balance."

"True, but right now I think I need to expand that quality time." I told her with a mischievous smile and she raised an eyebrow at me and I pulled her towards me and kissed her. "They aren't the only ones I've been neglecting lately." I told her softly as I laid her down. "I wonder if Donnie was right about a certain muscle still working properly." For the third time tonight she blushed, but this time I distracted her from it as I kissed her again and there were no more blushes that night. And that muscle did work just fine afterall.


	9. Chapter 9

I stood on the rooftop, with my foot on the parapet and my arms leaning on my bent knee as I looked over the street below me. The night breeze was trying to stir my light brown hair that had escaped my braid. It wasn't as long, or as dark as Mom's but long enough that running around the rooftops with it loose wasn't a good idea. And right now I was looking down at individuals who would make the attempt to grab that hair to use against me if I gave them the chance. Which I did not intend to.

"How many do you think are there?" I asked the big turtle who was crouched next to me on the rooftop.

"I'm not sure." Raph replied as his amber eyes also looked over what was going on below us. "But after what happened the other night, I'm not risking jumping down there to find out, yet."

The alley below us was filled with Dragons, Hun among them, and it seemed like they were waiting for someone. That usually wasn't good news. Raph grabbed my arm and gently pulled me away from the edge. "Not a good idea to be standing there Amy."

"Seriously? You scared I'm going to fall or something?" I grinned at him. "Not very confident on your teachings huh?" He always had been the hardest teacher, but that was only because of his concern which he showed now. He knew full well I wouldn't fall, but he couldn't help himself.

"Knock it off you dip." He smiled back. "Your Mom and Leo would have my head if I let you come even remotely close to falling."

"Please. Raph I haven't had to have one of you catch me in years."

"I'd like to keep it that way."

I just shook my head and looked back over the edge. "What do you think they are up too?"

"Right off hand, I'd say no good."

"Smartass."

"I know."

I just chuckled a little and pushed the few strands of hair out of my face. I hated that the color was closer to my 'Dad's' than Mom's. It's really the only thing that was a constant reminder of the man who sired me. And that's all he ever did, sired me. Leo had been more of a father to me than he ever would be. Dennis and I however really never did call him Dad, it just didn't catch on with us and he never pushed it. Just like the other three never pushed us to call them Uncle. It may sound silly to you, but the name 'Leo' for me carried more weight with me than the 'Dad' you might expect me to pin on him. He knows this and respects it, just like he knows I respect him far more than that lump of flesh that just up and walked out of our lives.

Leo was there, as well as my uncles, for everything that I needed a father to be there for. Granted he couldn't take me to father/daughter dances, or threaten my boyfriends to have me home by ten or he would shoot them full of bird pellets. But he was always there, a shadow that followed me whenever I needed him. He began teaching us ninjitsu on his own, Mom never asked him too, and later on I realized it was both out of the desire for us to be able to protect ourselves, and to share a little of something he loves with us because he loved us. He didn't love us because he was with our Mom, he loved us because he loved us.

In a way he was the main father figure to Dennis and I, but they all were like fathers to me, probably another reason why I didn't tack 'Dad' and 'Uncles' on them. They were all my Dad, they all looked out for my brother and I, they all looked out for my mother, Uncle Jim and my grandparents. It wasn't just Leo that took on that role, they all did. Even after they had their own mates and own children, they were still there for the rest of us. Leo was just the one who did it the most.

And honestly, the best thing about the blue wearing turtle that had the most of my respect, was this: he made my mother happy, very happy. That's the only thing I have ever wished for her. The middle of the night crying sessions stopped with her, sessions I know she thinks I don't know about, shortly after Leo arrived in her life. Even during that time when he had to go back to his own dimension and leave us behind, Mom still wasn't as unhappy as she was before. And to say she was ecstatic when he came back would be an understatement. No more did I sit on the other side of her door having to listen as she cried from loneliness, fear and hurt and feeling helpless to help her. For that alone he has earned my love, but as said before he didn't stop with just her, he took us all in as his own.

"Something is happening down there." My red banded companion of the night told me, bringing me out of my thoughts and I once again looked down. "Not the time to be daydreaming, kiddo." He quietly admonished me.

"I know. I just can't help it sometimes. You guys don't know how much better you have made our lives, and how much more fun."

I felt him look at me for a moment, then his hand found my shoulder and gave it a quick squeeze. "I know better than you think I do. Now, keep your mind on the task at hand."

"Yes, sir!" I clipped my heels together and shot him a sharp salute.

He returned it with a snort. "Fucking clown." He mumbled and grew quiet as another vehicle approached below us.

"Grouch ass." I shot back and he gave me a quick nudge with his forearm, it was time for us both to shut up and listen.

A back window rolled down on the vehicle and Hun walked up to it. From our angle we couldn't see who was in the car, but we were close enough to hear, especially since we had a nifty little device of Donnie's with us. That thing could pick up a buzzing fly on the building wall across the street. It was nice to have a couple of really smart guys in the family. Dennis and Dante weren't as smart as Donnie, but he taught them both everything they knew and they expanded on his ideas. Donnie by himself was pretty damn smart, you put those three together and they came up with shit that made our sneaking lives of spying on baddies so much easier. Like the live feed this thing was giving Dennis in the van, where he in return was filtering it back to the lair where Leo and Donnie were more than likely listening in the lab.

We had all had split into teams, shadowing any know Dragon members and had been doing this for a couple of nights now. Trying to find out something that was a) related to the increased Dragon activity recently and b) related to the warehouse boom and following rampage through that secret base. Even better if we could pin them both together.

"I am disappointed Hun. Not only did the device get destroyed by your bumbling lackys, but only two of the four specimens were caught. That in turn caused the other two to come and free the ones I did have. I had your assurances that all would go well and yet it didn't. Would you like to explain to me why?"

"Well, that answers some questions." I said quietly to Raph who only quickly nodded in reply.

"The plan itself was sound, the buffoon who couldn't keep his trigger finger under control has been...dealt with."

"That does not excuse you!" The voice in the car snapped. "Due to this amateurish mistake I have lost an underground base and numerous of my toys. It will take me weeks to rebuild it all."

Hun was furious, even from here you could tell that. "Pardon me,_ sir_. But I wasn't the only one who messed this up. Sure it was my man who shot your toy as we tried to retrieve it, but you were the one who decided to play with the others when they first broke in. If you hadn't decided to test them and instead went after them full force like I had suggested, you would have them by now."

"I don't like your tone Hun."

"And I don't like yours. Doesn't change the fact that we need to work together on this."

"True, but there is also the matter of the mysterious appearance of these other turtles. Why was I not informed that there were more than just the four?"

"Obviously because I didn't know about them either." Hun told the person in the car with a straight face.

"Liar." Raph muttered and I nodded in agreement. Hun damn well knew about the younger ones, they had the misfortune to run into him on their 'sneak out night'.

"I see. Well then, I'm sure you can gather information on them? That should be in your ability range I hope."

"Don't insult me. A couple of robbery plans leaked out and I'm sure they will show up."

"For your sake I hope you're right."

"I'm not the only one with my head riding on this, Spencer. You should be just as concerned about them as I am."

"Yes, but I'm not the one who has been thwarted by these reptiles for the better part of twenty years. It is your obvious inability to handle these turtles that brought me into this mess in the first place. Find them, all of them, and bring them to me. I will make sure they will be disposed of, then we can move forward."

"I'll get them, one way or another."

"Then I believe we have nothing more to discuss." The window on the car went back up and it began to pull out of the ally.

I took a moment to shoot a quick, concerned look at Raph and he met it with one just as worried. "This isn't good."

"No, it's not. Now all of you are targets." That thought worried me to no end. I was just as protective of the younger turtles as their fathers, I considered all of them to me my younger brothers and sisters. Now the most inexperienced of all of us were walking around with targets on their backs. This was not good at all.

_'Guys, Leo wants everyone back to the lair. Now.' _Dennis broke in over the headset.

"Looks like the evening is coming to an early end." I said as Raph acknowledged Dennis' transmission.

"It seems so." Raph agreed as we began to move back towards the van.

I ran easily next to my teacher as we swiftly moved across the rooftops, and large gaps I couldn't jump he was more than happy to give me a quick toss before he followed. I had trained with them all so intimately over the years that my lack of turtle power wasn't even a factor, nor a hindrance. Heck they even worked in new moves to accommodate me. Like now, even as I landed and rolled back to my feet Raph was already next to me with an arm stretched out for me. I leapt up in a forward somersault and landed on that arm with my knees bent and he smoothly pushed me with that arm forwards and upwards. I pushed off with my legs as he gave me that heave and reached out with my arms in front of me, grabbing a flagpole and swinging around it twice before flipping up to the rooftop that was set higher than the one we had just left. Again I hit the ground running and Raph was by my side again a moment later. Even with the seriousness of what we had just found out, I had a wide grin on my face. This was just too much fun.

"A little flashy, but not bad." Raph grinned as he ran alongside me.

"Thank you. Mikey has been helping me with my acrobatics." I grinned back at him.

"Well, that explains the flash." He chuckled. "Ready for another one?"

"Anytime, big boy." He grinned again and reached out his right arm for my left and we clasped forearms and leapt into the air again. He spun us around in midair once and flung me towards a clothesline. His aim and momentum was perfect as I was able to twist myself so I landed on it feet first. It drooped down under my weight for a moment before it snapped back up like a rubber band, shooting me back up in the air. Once again I was flying upwards and met him as he flew over me, once again grabbing my wrists as he somersaulted over me. His forward spin carried me into a spin of my own and he let me go again as I went over him and I flew into a high arc over nothingness, but I had trust in him. He hit a water tower that was under us and leapt up into the air again as I was coming down and once again we met in mid air and this time he spun me forwards towards the next rooftop and we hit and rolled at the same time, side by side, before shooting up to our feet again and kept running on. "That was fucking awesome!" I laughed with glee as we ran.

"Hey, Mikey isn't the only one with fancy moves." He winked. "I can't do that with Cris to much. She's still got that heights thing that hits her at odd moments." We flipped over a small alley and kept going.

"Good thing you got me to practice on then, huh?" I replied with a smile as we both flipped down to a lower rooftop, this one with a slanted roof that we slid down before leaping again at the bottom towards another rooftop.

"Your Mom is getting pretty good at this too, but Leo likes to hog her up all to himself."

"You have to remember Raph, they came into this late in life. I've been training under you guys since I was 6. I haven't had time to develop those fear of heights and open spaces in midair that took you guys years to break down with them."

"True enough I suppose." He grinned again. We came to a stop at the edge of the last building, the van in the street below us. "Looks like the end of tonight's entertainment."

With a sigh of disappointment I looked down at the waiting van. "Yeah, I guess so." We didn't even bother with the fire escape, we just slid down a drainpipe. Once on the ground we entered the van to find Dennis staring at us.

"You two are fucking nuts!" He said as we walked further inside. "You just about gave me a heart attack watching that."

I shot my older brother a grin. "Don't watch then."

"It's what I'm out here for, I'm supposed to watch over you guys." He smiled as he leaned back in his chair. "Did look pretty awesome tho."

"Thank you." I gave him an exaggerated bow. Sometimes I wished he would come out more with us, but his strength was here, in the van. I'm not saying he couldn't whoop some ass out there, just that he only did if there was no other choice. More than once he has locked up the van and came to help us out of a jam. "Where are the others?"

"Moving in now, looks like Mikey and Ari are as crazy as you two." Dennis replied as he pointed to the screen. I looked over to see Ari flying high like I was earlier and Mikey catching her and sending her out once again. I don't know what stunned me more, their graceful acrobatics or Dennis' knack for watching us on cameras you didn't even know were out there, he's even used satilittes a few times to track us. And always seemed to go behind us and delete any footage of us passing through. Yup, he was the natural choice to van-sit. Without him a lot of these antics would be plastered all over the news the next day.

After a few moments of waiting for the others we were all finally gathered and Dennis began the drive back. "So, I'm assuming someone heard something tonight?" Mom asked as she took off her asp belt and slung it across the back of a nearby seat.

"We did." Raph told her. He quickly looked around at the youngsters before he spoke again. "We'll talk more at the lair."

She caught his meaning and just nodded, worry flashing across her face. She wasn't stupid, she knew right then that the teens were now somehow involved. Now the question would be, what were we going to do about it?


	10. Chapter 10

Well, it was official, I was freaked the crap out. Never been an actual target before and I didn't like it. I sat with my cousins in the living area as our fathers laid out the rules for us. No more single pairs up there. If we go out, we go out as a group. It was safer that way.

"Why on earth would that be safer!" Thane exploded, obviously not too happy about this new development.

Uncle Leo just gave him a level look before he replied. "Because it's easier to pick us off if we are in pairs. Taking down two individuals is a whole lot easier than taking down all of us at once."

"Why don't we just go to their hideout and bust this Hun guy up? Maybe he will learn to leave us alone."

"That sounds familiar." Dad said to Uncle Donnie.

"Can't be helped, I guess." Uncle Donnie shrugged. "Look at who his parents are."

"Not funny you two." Uncle Raph growled at them. "And it's getting old."

"So once again we are forced to stay here." Lavi said, somewhat bitterly.

I frowned slightly at her. Ever since we went after my Uncles in that underground lab place, she has been acting...strange. Like there was something bothering her that she wouldn't talk about. I had tried to cheer her up a few times but it really didn't do much good. Uncle Leo had also noticed the change in his daughter, and he also tried to draw her out but after that talk they had in his bedroom she clammed up.

I knew about that talk because I was evesdropping in the hallway, one of the bad habits I get from my Dad. Problem is, being the youngest they all tended to baby me the most so I had to find a lot of things out on my own.

"Lavi, I'm not going to risk anyone in this family going up there right now on their own, or in small groups." Uncle Leo told her firmly. "The adults will follow the same guidelines."

"We shouldn't even have to hide from them in the first place!" She flared out.

"Lavi! That's enough! We have discussed this already and I'm not going to rehash the same argument over and over with you."

She remained quiet, but her blue/brown eyes were flashing under her lavender mask. Uncle Leo met that gaze with his own, firm one and she finally just turned her head away. We all learned pretty quick not to cross him, or Uncle Raph, when they were in one of their 'moods'. And right now Uncle Leo was in one. This recent development was enough to set him on edge, and it didn't help that his legs still weren't working right. Even now he was barely able to stand on his own, but at least he was. Even if it was standing with his arms crossed, glaring at Lavi.

"So, what do we do?" Ty asked, more to get the attention off of his sister than anything else. We already knew we were about to get told that next.

"If I know your father, we wait." Aunt Vicky said from where she was leaning on the wall not far away from her mate.

"For what?"

"April." Came Uncle Leo's curt reply. "Her and Casey are out there right now trying to find out where Hun is holed up. Once they do we will do a little recon."

"Donnie style." Dad grinned and Uncle Leo just nodded. "There's more than one way to fight back."

"Just hope he doesn't blow anything up doing it." Uncle Raph winked.

"Ha, ha, ha." Came from the chair next to me where the Uncle in question was sitting, with his cast leg propped up on the coffee table. He looked like he wanted to take a crutch to my larger Uncle.

"You do tend to do that a lot, love." Aunt Marina told him with a smile.

"Yeah, but half the time it's not really my fault."

"And the other half?" She asked him with a raised eyebrow.

He just blushed a little before turning his head away. "Anyway," He said over the chuckles around him. "I might need a little help. If I can't hack my way in from here, Dante and Dennis are going to have to get in close so I can filter through them."

"Why on earth would you not be able to do that?" Dad asked him. "You're Donnie, Donnie the tech wonder!"

"There is this thing called 'progress', Mikey. They all know about me, and what I can do. I guarantee you they have taken steps to keep me from just waltzing around in their computers."

"So you can't do it?" Dad asked him in disbelief.

"Did I say that? Of course I can, I just need to get closer for the initial break in is all."

"Why on earth would distance make a difference?"

Uncle Donnie rolled his eyes. "So I can fool their systems into thinking I'm one of their computers."

"That makes no sense to me." Dad confessed.

"Didn't think it would, but you _did_ ask."

"So we just sit here on our butts then." Thane sighed.

"For the time being, yes." Uncle Leo told him.

"Well this is going to be fun." My cousin mumbled.

"We should be used to it." Ty winked at him. "Not the first time we've been holed up here."

"I know, it just bites is all. We finally get to go out, and the door slams right back shut in our faces."

"Ah...but this is what you are overlooking kiddo." Aunt Vicky smiled at him. "When we finally open that door again, theres going to be a monster asswhoopin' waiting for those on the other side."

"And probably a few explosions." Dad grinned, eyeing Uncle Donnie who promptly smacked him with a crutch. "Owww."

Something about the whole thing was nagging me, but I really couldn't put my finger on it. And it wasn't just the whole 'bring me the turtles' aspect of it either, though as mentioned before that was making me more than a little nervous. Our parents had dealt with this numerous times and learned how to deal with it, but for some reason I couldn't shake this feeling that this time was different. Nor could I explain that feeling. I was sitting there brooding about it still long after the meeting broke up and my family disappeared to different corners of our home.

"What's bothering you, pumpkin." Dad asked as he sat down next to me after awhile. "You haven't moved from this spot in about an hour now."

Heck if I knew. I couldn't even answer that myself. "I don't know, something just feels off to me about the whole thing."

He gave me that childlike grin that always seems to come to his face easily. Dad has always been the most fun loving and easygoing out of all of them, always quick with a grin or a joke, usually at the expense of others and usually rewarded with a good whack. Even with all his crazy goofiness, there was also another side to him that didn't come to light often. He was a good listener and he understood far more than the others gave him credit for. It's just Dad annoyed everyone so often that they never think to talk to him, except Aunt Vicky. She was about the only one that puts up with his wackiness besides my mother. Even Uncle Leo has a limited patience with him. Personally, I think he does it on purpose. I mean, think about it, what better way to throw your opponent off guard than by teasing and annoying them to no end? More than once he has used his fast mouth to turn the tide in a fight. And of course he has to keep his edge in the witty remarks aspect of his fighting skill, so he practices on us. And in return Uncle Raph practices his whacking skills on him. "Ari, our whole family is 'off', or haven't you noticed that?"

I just rolled my eyes. That would have gotten me into trouble with anyone but him. "I'm serious, Dad." Though I did giggle a little at him. "Something is bugging me, I just don't know why."

This is where his mind took one of it's rare visits into seriousland as he studied me. "Ari, hold onto that. It's not the first time one of those feelings have saved our shells."

I looked at him a little skeptic. Why on earth would he trust the undeveloped instincts of a teenager? "I'm not sure I'm qualified enough for this. What if I'm just feeling nervous about what's going on?"

"Then you would have said 'this is making me nervous', not 'I have a bad feeling'." He reached out his hand and took mine in it. "Listen, pip squeak." I groaned at that nickname, pumpkin I could deal with, I hated pip squeak. "I know you are the youngest, and because of that you get babied a lot. Don't let that make you think we won't respect your input. Your Uncle Leo was dodging traps and flying objects with ease when he wasn't much older than you. Age isn't a factor with us. If you do have that natural ability, don't hide it in doubt. If the puzzle does click together in your head, please say something."

I could tell he meant what he said. I also knew he would stand up for me if needed. "I will." I promised him.

"Good, now, you up for a rematch?" He was grinning again as he held up a controller.

"You're on!" I grinned back as I took the other one and soon after we were trying our best to annihilate each other on the screen. With the voice of Aunt Cris shouting "Turn that shit _down_!" at us every few minutes. All in all a normal evening, including the traditional passing out on the couch next to him. Something we have done so many times Mom just gave up on trying to get us to bed.

This time however, something woke me up. I sat there in the quiet, now dark, living room for a moment, trying to figure out what it was exactly that had brought me out of my sleep. I surveyed the room and noticed a shadow moving across the lair towards the door. A shadow I knew had no business leaving our home, especially alone.

I frowned as Lavi slipped out of the lair, now in the moral dilemma of letting her go or to let someone know she left. I knew she would be pissed if she got caught, but my worry for her won out and I shook my father awake.

"I didn't do it!" He almost shouted as he came awake startled, and promptly fell onto the floor before blinking his sleepy eyes at me. "What?"

"Dad, Lavi just left."

"She what?" He snapped fully awake now. "What is she doing!" He fumed as he headed towards the exit.

"Should I get Uncle Leo?"

"No, I got this." He replied as he slipped out the door. I just hoped he could get her back home before my uncle did find out. Wasn't looking forward to having to explain this one to him.


	11. Chapter 11

For being Leo's daughter, Lavi sure was acting stupid. Didn't we _just_ tell them _not_ to go off alone like this? And she did it anyway! And she was quick! She couldn't have had more than a few minutes head start on me and I was already having a hard time tracking her.

Shaking my head in annoyance I ran on, following the clues so small a normal person would have missed them. I kept trailing her for a few minutes, hoping she would at least stay in the tunnels, until finally I spotted her shadow slipping around a corner ahead of me and I put on a burst of speed. Still she managed to evade me yet again, this time by going up I figured out quickly as I heard the soft thump of a manhole cover being slipped back into place above me. "Shit." I muttered under my breath as I scrambled up the ladder after her. This child was asking for trouble tonight.

Still I kept my head in the game well enough to follow her out and catch the direction she went, and once again I was promptly in pursuit. The difference was now I could track her movements easier. She was good, but I had more experience in following things that didn't want to be followed.

I caught up to her just as I thought I figured out where she was heading, Purple Dragon territory of all places. What on earth was she trying to do? I asked her that after I landed behind her.

After a startled squeak and spinning around, and almost decking me, she looked at me for a moment before she answered. "Nothing."

Now, I know I'm not the smartest turtle in the bunch, but even _I_ knew that was a flat out lie. "Lavi, seriously?" I asked her in a flat tone. "You risk your father's wrath, come out here in Purple Dragon territory knowing that they are looking for us, and you try to tell me that you're not up to anything?" I knew she wasn't telling me something, mainly because she wouldn't meet my gaze. "What on earth is going on in your head?"

Finally she looked up at me, and I could see a number of emotions in her eyes. Anger, confusion, frustration and fear being the main ones. "I don't know!" She finally snapped out at me, then flinched when she realized the tone she took. I guess she was expecting a whack or something. I didn't of course, Leo and Raph were the big ones on respect and discipline, but I did tilt my head a little as I took in her mixed emotion expression. There was something going on behind those unusual eyes, I just didn't know what. "I just...I don't know." She finally said in a defeated tone as she turned her head away again.

"Ok, why don't you tell me what you are doing out here instead then?"

She looked over the sleeping city for awhile before she spoke. "I was hoping to do something." She still wasn't telling me everything.

"What kind of something?" Again she really didn't answer, but her expression told me everything I needed to know. And if you took her earlier outburst into consideration, it really wasn't to hard to figure out. I narrowed my eyes as she kept trying to avoid mine. "You were trying to go after Hun, weren't you?"

"Yes I was!" She snapped at me for the second time. "I don't understand why we have to hide from him! He almost kills you and Uncle Donnie, and takes Uncle Raph and Father and now Father can't even walk!"

"Easy, Lavi." I tried to calm her. If she got much louder we probably would attract some unwanted attention.

"NO!" She actually yelled this time. "I'm tired of hiding from these humans just because they don't understand us, or even want too. Maybe it's time we stood up and said we won't take this shit anymore!"

I didn't know what to tell her. I really didn't. I could sympathize with her though. There were numerous times when I wished I could just walk among the streets openly. Just walk out and go get a pizza without having everyone freak out and run away, or try to catch us and dissect us. But yet, we are always the ones behind the scenes fighting for them against types like Bishop, Stockman, Shredder and countless others. Risking our necks to save theirs. Lavi wasn't going through anything we haven't already thought about. Her sheltered world was now completely shot to shit, and she didn't know how to handle it.

Before I could even begin to calm her down, the rooftop suddenly filled with men. At least I thought they were men, dressed all in back and wrapped up like...ninjas? Who in the hell were these Halloween rejects? I didn't have time to ponder that as Dragons had finally made their appearance from the other side. Well wasn't this just great...

I had no idea what was going on but I wasn't about to find out. I grabbed Lavi's arm and started to drag her along behind me as I hightailed it out of there, not even to bother looking back behind me at what was going on. Didn't really need to as I heard footsteps taking up the chase.

"Lavi, this is why we told you all _to stay home!_" I grumbled as she now ran alongside me. She knew just as well as I did that flight was our only option at this point. I risked a quick glance over my shoulder, and was more than a little surprised to only see dragons chasing us. You would expect that they would send the ninjas after the ninjas. Still, I kept a wary eye around me as we ran. Ninjas I knew, those sneaky bastards like to pop out of nowhere, I should know, I've done it to Vicky and Cris numerous times.

"This way!" I grabbed her arm again and quickly changed our direction. We needed to somehow get some distance between us and the goons behind us. and the only way to do that right now was with a good ol' fashioned rooftop hop, over a gap that was way too large for them to follow. The one I was trying to reach was more than enough to do just that. Once we were on the other side I could then focus on those damn ninjas.

Once again side by side we ran, the gap quickly coming up in front of us. "Go Lavi!" I told her as we took our final steps, then we launched ourselves off of the roof. Easy jump for us, except I had forgotten one major detail, and I was quickly reminded of that as we were hit with something that felt like a lightning bolt as we were halfway over the gap. We missed our mark, not able to coordinate our own movements anymore, I remembered that Hun wasn't working alone anymore. As I landed in the middle of some garbage cans, with Lavi hitting right beside me, I saw the metal gleam of streetlights reflecting off of robot bodies, before I was hit again. I couldn't even begin to defend myself, or my niece. But I did sympathize with Leo a lot more. I remember thinking that those things fucking hurt before I blacked out.

.

.

The sound of the bedroom door opening woke me. Even as soft as the sound was, it was more than enough. I opened my eyes to see who was quietly walking into the room.

"What is it, Ari?" I asked my niece softly even as she reached out a hand to wake me, scareing her obviously since she let out a soft squeak and jumped. Vicky shifted in my arms at the sound, but buried her head into my shoulder and quickly settled back down.

"Uncle Leo, I...um...well..." She stammered, causing me to frown a bit. The girl was usually more composed than that.

"What?" I asked her again.

She stepped back from the bed a little and took a deep breath, looking like she was about to bolt back out the open door. "Lavi snuck out and Dad went after her, and neither one made it home yet." I stared at her for a moment. I know I didn't hear what I thought I just heard. "They've been gone a couple hours now." She finished quietly, backing up even more.

"WHAT!?" I roared sitting up, almost flinging my mate out of the bed in the process. I quickly reached out to grab Vicky and pull her back in before she did tumble out. She looked around a little confused for a moment before she glared at me, I ignored her. My gaze was firmly fixed on the teenager in front of me. "Why are you telling me this _now_?!" I almost screamed at her. Damn that child of mine! What on earth was she _doing_?!

"Leo, what's wrong?" Vicky finally woke up enough to ask, then caught sight of Ari. "What's going on?"

"Dad told me not to!" Ari answered my question, with tears of fright in her eyes. I felt bad when I realized I was more than likely the one causing those tears. The girl was just following her own fathers orders, and I was taking what my daughter did out on her.

I took a deep breath to calm myself, even Vicky knew enough to give me a moment. "It's ok, Ari." I told her, once again calm. "Go get Donnie up." The blonde girl just nodded quickly, then ran as fast as she could out of the room.

"Leo?"

I turned my attention now to Vicky, who was still waiting for an answer. "Lavi snuck out and Mikey went after her. And apparently he thought I didn't need to know that." I told her as I began to struggle out of bed. That snapped her into motion. I watched frustrated as she was able to get up and starting to get dressed as I was still trying to stand. With a rush of anger I forced myself on my feet, ignoring the wobbly feelings in my legs. Anger still fueling me it didn't take me to long to get ready after that. Then I proceeded to stomp my way out of the room, this time Vicky was the one trying to keep up as I made my way to the lab, just as Donnie came crutching out of his room with Marina not far behind. "Is she serious?" He asked me as he got closer.

"Yes." I snapped off walking into the lab. "Use your damn fancy gadgets and find my daughter." Vicky was standing next to me now as we came to a stop next to Donnie's desk, her eyes filled with her own anger, and worry. Ari was already there, sitting in a corner as far away from me as she could get, her own eyes wide as she watched us. I took in her frightened look, and took pity on the child. Yes, it was my daughter that snuck out but it was her father who went after her. and now they were both missing. "Ari, come here."

More than a little hesitant she walked over to stand in front of me and nervously looked up into my eyes. I pulled her into my arms and held her for a moment. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have went off on you like that." I let most of my anger flow out of me as I held her close. Scareing the shit out of her wasn't going to help anything right now.

"What in the hell is going on?" A sleepy eyed Raph snapped as he walked into the lab. "You guys are making more racket than a cat thrown into a dog pen full of rottweilers."

I quickly filled him in as Donnie was running different search patterns on his gizmos. "Got a lock on Mikey's phone."

"And his tracker?" Vicky asked, her voice strained.

Donnie just shook his head. "Either he doesn't have it on, or it's been disabled. And I'm not getting anything from Lavi."

Still holding Ari, I looked at Raph. "Get them up. Everyone."

"You sure?"

"Raph, I meant what I said earlier. We all go out as one."

"We?" Vicky cut in, her eyes narrowing as she looked at me.

"Yes, we. That's my daughter out there, and I'm going to bring her back." And I dared anyone to try and stop me as I glared around the room.


	12. Chapter 12

I stood next to Leo as we took in the alley the signal had led us to. The empty alley. The only signs that anything at all happened here was the crushed garbage cans further in. No Mikey, no Lavi. I felt worry shoot through me again for my missing daughter and Leo's youngest brother. A worry he himself was fighting as I felt his fists clench.

Raph had walked over to the mangled heap of garbage cans, following the handheld receiver Donnie had given him, and was digging through the pile as the rest of us kept an uneasy guard. After a few moments he pulled out a few things, sputtering curses as he did. He stood back up and walked over to us and as he drew closer I could see he had Mikey's phone in one hand, and Lavi's tonfas in another. I swallowed hard, trying not to let my fear worsen.

Leo had a harder time trying to restrain himself as his fist lashed out against the nearby wall, rage filling his eyes.

"I think we should have brought some tranq needles." Cris murmured from behind me as she walked up. Leo had however still heard her and angrily spun about, his fists trembling. She just calmly crossed her arms and looked back at him. Cris could take on Raph on a bad day, Leo didn't scare her one bit.

"Leo, please." I softly begged him. "Not now." His eyes snapped at me, still full of fury, and fear. He was starting to scare me more than a little. He must of sensed it because he closed his eyes and took, quite a few, deep breaths before leaning against the wall with his hand. I had a bad feeling that it was his anger that was keeping him on his feet right now.

"This is all that was to find." Raph grumbled as he came to a stop in front of us.

"Dante!" Leo called out to our nephew, and the yellow masked teenager came jogging up with a questioning look in his eyes. "Can you scan the area? Look for anything that may tell us what happened here."

Dante nodded and fired up the pack that Donnie had once again entrusted his son with before walking around the alley.

"Doesn't look like much of a fight happened here." Raph said as he did his own sweep of the alley with his eyes.

"I don't think one did happen." Ari said from not far away where she was keeping watch at the mouth of the alley with Dennis and Amy. "The way the cans were crushed seems to suggest that they fell from above."

Raph and Leo looked at the girl thoughtfully a moment. "Take Ty and Thane, and go check out the rooftops." Leo told his brother quietly. Raph nodded and led the teens up the side of the building.

Dante came walking back, with his mother walking next to him. She had been walking the perimeter, her eyes seeming far and distant. Now Marina's eyes had a dangerous glint in them as she moved closer. "I think I'm going to find whoever is building this new cloaking tech and rip them apart, bit by bit. I can't sense anything farther than a few hundred feet out. And, unfortunately, the two we are looking for are not in that radius."

"I had a different outcome." Dante told us. "I'm picking up residue charges, much like the ones from the robots we ran into in that base." That really didn't do much to settle my nerves as I now clung to Leo's hand. His tight grip on mine told me he was sharing my worry.

"Aunt Marina?" Ari interrupted softly as she left her post, unsure if she was allowed to interrupt as she looked over at Leo and I. Mainly Leo, I don't think she was over the fright he had caused her earlier. Leo however nodded for her to continue. I think we were all startled more than a little on the girl's unusual insight to things, and it seemed Leo was encouraging her to speak her mind more. Now that she had all of our attention, she seemed to blush a little as she turned back to her aunt. "If you were to draw what you sense on a piece of paper, area wise, what would it look like?"

We looked at her a little baffled, not quite sure where she was going with this. Flustered more than a little now, she struggled to try and put her thoughts into words. "I mean, if we had a map and were to lay it out in front of you, with this spot being marked as the center, would you be able to trace the borders of your ability on it?"

Marina looked thoughtfully at her for a moment. "I'm sure I could, but I don't know how accurate it would be. Why?"

Ari nervously fiddled with the chain on her three sectioned staff for a moment. "Maybe we could use that to trace the range of the shield. Once we have the borders of it lined out, the logical conclusion would be that the device would be centered inside those borders."

"Giving us a possible location of where it's coming from." Leo finished softly as his eyes met Ari's, who just nodded.

"Shit, the girl _is_ good." Cris mumbled, impressed.

"I told you, I'm seriously doubting that she's Mikey's kid." Raph said as he and the boys walked back over. "She's way to fucking smart to be his."

"Did you find anything up there?" Leo asked him.

"Yes and no. It seems there was some kind of beat down, but it doesn't seem like Mikey and Lavi were involved."

Leo was quiet again as he considered the newest pieces to this puzzle. His eyes were once again thoughtfully taking everything in around him. "I'm thinking they might have been trying to avoid the rooftop fight then."

"And got zapped as they tried to clear the alley." Raph confirmed. "That's the way things look up there. Two seperate groups, one of them obviously Dragons."

"So...who's the other?" Cris asked.

Raph shook his head in frustration. "I don't know. Whoever they were, they cleaned up after themselves very well."

"Guys!" Dennis called softly, his hand pressed to the earpiece. He had been listening in on the police frequencies. "There are reports of some kind of commotion about seven or eight blocks north of us. It seems witnesses are reporting that a vehicle had been attacked."

"Attacked by who?" Raph asked him.

"Unconfirmed. The reports are all sketchy because it's only witnesses who were disturbed by the commotion, the vehicle owners themselves did not report it."

"Which means they have something to hide." Leo said as he narrowed his eyes.

"Wanna take bets on if it is two large turtles?" Amy asked.

"Let's get back to van." Leo decided. "Once there, Marina, I want you to work on that map. Dennis do you have the address of the attack?"

"Yes."

"That also gets marked on the map, along with direction of travel."

"So, that's it?" Raph asked him incredulously. "We are just going to drive around and mark shit on a map?"

Leo's jaw clenched tightly before he answered. "Raph, it's all we can do. We have no other way to find them, unless Dennis can find something else out on the scanners."

"I'm trying Leo." Came my son's reply. "If I hear anything else I'll let you know."

"I don't like it." Raph said flatly.

"I don't either!" Leo finally flared and all of them looked at him nervously. I squeezed his hand and he calmed himself again. "But we have worked with less than this before."

Raph took in his mood a moment before finally nodding in agreement. He laid a hand on his brother's shoulder for a moment before turning to the others. "You heard him, everyone back to the van."

They then began to move back to the van. Everyone but me. I just stood there, my fear starting to break through my calm exterior I had place around myself and tears finally began to spring to my eyes. As long as I had Leo next to me, trying to keep him calm, I was fine. Now that he seemed to be, somewhat, in control of his emotions and was able to function properly, now I couldn't. "Vicky?" Came Leo's voice from behind me, from the direction he and the others had gone. I barely heard him as I tried to get myself back under control, but I was failing. I just wanted my daughter back...I just wanted... Now those salty drops did make their way down my face.

"Dear one..." Leo's soft voice came from beside me now as he gently turned me towards him. I clung to him desperately as I cried against his chest. "We'll find her, Vicky." He said quietly as he wrapped his arms around me. "We'll find her."

"Maybe we should take her home." Raph said as he came walking back over. I was shaking my head no even before he even finished. No way I could go home, I just couldn't. I had to help find her, I just had to.

"Maybe I should stop getting pissed off and focus more on what's going on around me." Leo replied, giving me a quick squeeze. "I'm sure my surly attitude isn't helping."

"You just can't pull it off like I can. Come on, Vic." Raph gently pulled me out of Leo's arms, and wrapped one of his around my shoulders as he guided me back to the van. Leo took a hold of my hand from the other side.

When we stepped inside, Dante closed the door behind us and Dennis got the thing moving. Raph guided me to the closest bench and sat me down before moving out of the way for Leo who sat next to me. Again he pulled me close and just held me.

Ari herself looked like she was about to lose it, and she did when Raph sat next to her. She was clinging to him much the same way I was clinging to Leo.

Dante, Thane and Ty were leaning on the wall of the van as they took it all in quietly. "I have a feeling there is going to be major asswhoopins going around soon." Dante told his cousin.

Ty's eyes were flashing as he answered. "You have no idea." He said in a dangerous tone.

Dante raised an eyeridge as he watched the quietly fuming Ty. "I think I do. And I don't think it's going to be just them delivering it."

"They took my sister and Uncle, forced Father to come out here before he was ready and made Mother and Ari cry. They better hope I don't fucking find them." I heard my son reply in that same tone.

Dante just sighed and went to go find a map for Marina, not really much he could say to that. Thane, however, put an understanding hand on Ty's shoulder.

Right now we were all in brooding and comfort mode as we struggled to find out what happened to our loved ones and right now the van was unusually quiet because of it. I had no doubt in my mind however that when the time to retaliate came, all of us would be up to the challenge. Right now we needed to get our worries and fears under control, the ass whoopins would come later. And god help those who got in our way.


	13. Chapter 13

Ooooowwww... Damn my head hurt, and my body, and my arms, and my legs...Fuck it, everything hurt.

I opened my eyes and tried to take in my surroundings. From my laying down position all I could make out was a ceiling, with a simple, bare, light fixture. The bare bulb giving out a soft glow as it illuminated the just as simple room surrounding me. Where was I?

I sat up, honestly surprised to not find myself restrained, and looked around. I take that back, simple didn't even begin to describe the run down room I found myself in. There was literally nothing in here, besides me and the cot I was laying on.

Lord, my head... I brought my hand up, rubbing the nice knot I had on the back of it where I hit something. Jeez, what did they have in those garbage cans? Bricks? I wonder if Lavi had a softer landing... Lavi! Shit!

My own pain now forgotten, I struggled to get up...and promptly fell face first on the floor as my legs didn't respond. Dammit! I knew right away what was wrong, and why my legs wouldn't work. Here I was, in a strange place, don't know who was here, or where my niece was and I was having the same problems as Leo. I was starting to wonder if those damn things were built just for this purpose.

Well, I sure wasn't going to just lay here. I figured this might be a good time to call my bros. Boy, Leo was going to have a fucking cow when he hears about-... Where the hell was my phone? Are you kidding me? Aaargh! Fuck my duck luck! I dropped my head to the floor in frustration, with a loud thump. Oow... Ok, shouldnta done that. Mumbling a whole bunch of not so nice things I rubbed my head, and the new goose egg forming.

Think, Mikey, think! There had to be a way out of here, there is _always_ a way out of here. Wasn't sure if I was going to be able to _use_ the way out of here, but there _had_ to be one. I had to focus on that. Right now the first step of being able to do that would be making my way to the door. Once again grumbling numerous awful things about my luck, and the shithorse she likes to ride, I began to pull myself towards the door. Well, this wasn't slow going at all. At this point a normal turtle could outrun me.

I was about halfway across the room when I heard muffled voices and footsteps coming from the other side of the door. Sounded like they were headed this way. Could anything _else_ go wrong? Wait...I take that back, something else always seems to go wrong.

Out of reflex, my hand shot to where I kept my weapon and once again shock hit me as I found them there. So, the bad guys who zapped my ass didn't tie me up and didn't take my weapons. Was I missing something here? Were they suddenly getting nicer?

Shaking my head to clear it of these wandering thoughts of mine, I focused as the door handle started to turn, my nunchucks ready in my hands. I may be down but that didn't mean I would be out. I fully intended to break some damn ankles. If I got the chance.

I silently waited as the door finally swung open and three figures walked into the room. One was clad all in black like the ninjas I saw on the rooftops earlier. The other was too, almost. She didn't have a hood on. She kinda looked a little like Karai, but there were enough differences for me to correct that first quick assumption. She was obviously of Asian descent, but she wasn't Karai.

I didn't ponder on her very long though, it was the figure that came in with them that held my attention. I was seriously hoping to never have to see him again. Any thought I had of trying to sneak an ankle shot went away as I whipped my weapons out, knowing there was nothing I could do against him in my current state. But I'd be damned if I let him near me without a fight. "_You!_" I snarled. Raph would be proud of me for that...if he were here.

"Lotus, help our guest back into his bed. Can't have him hurting himself more than he already is." His gaze met mine. "I'd do it myself, but I'm not sure he will let me get close enough."

"Yes, Master." The woman replied as she and the other one stepped forward, easily sidestepping my clumsy swings. _You_ try taking a swing at someone when you are belly down on the floor and see how easy it is...

I pretty much ignored her after my silly ass attempts to defend myself as I kept my gaze on him, eyes narrowing. "Why?!" I practically spat at him, not caring the slightest bit about my rude mouth as I was helped to my feet.

His eyes flared for a minute, then seemed to fill with regret before he answered with one calm statement. "Because I have a lot to make up for."

That's all he would tell me before he turned to leave the room, but, call me crazy, I believed him. Something told me I would be safe here. I should be checked into a mental hospital for _thinking_ that, but I did. Now, if I could just find Lavi...

"The female isn't here." He said softly from where he paused at the door frame. "We tried to get her, but we couldn't. I'm sorry." Again I knew somehow he meant it. "When you are done getting him settled back in, I think it wise to find his family, and bring them here. We have much to discuss now that my involvement is known."

"It shall be done, Master." The woman, Lotus, replied. This time he did leave the room and I could only stare at the now empty doorway in stunned bafflement. What in the hell was going on? And why was I always the one to stumble into this shit? And why on earth was I not a pile of shredded turtle meat on the floor? The answers would have to wait, right now I was in no condition to find them out as I collapsed against the pillows on the small cot.

"I shall have someone bring you some food." Lotus told me after I was once again safe in my very uncompfy bed. I just nodded absently, still trying to wrap my head around this new turn of events. Leo was going to blow his damn top...

.

.

"One? You bring me _one_ turtle?" I heard a voice snap as I slowly came awake. "And it's not even one of the main four!"

"You said to bring them all to you, Spencer." Now that growling voice I knew. Hun... "Besides, they came for her once before, I'm sure they will do so again."

"And destroy the whole compound doing it you moron!"

"Watch it, Spencer. We may have to work together on this, but that doesn't mean you can't work if I break your scrawny ass legs."

I tried to remain silent and not move. Not that I could move. I was pretty much strapped to the wall the same way Father had been when we found him. My arms were already starting to hurt from being pinned over my head to this wall for who knows how long and I barely managed to stop a groan as they were seriously protesting their current position. Somewhere along the line I had lost my mask, and my hair ties, and my dark brown hair was convinietly providing me with a curtain to hide from them the fact I was awake as I kept my head slumped forward.

Another thing I was trying to hide was my fear at being here, alone, with them. I already knew that my Uncle had managed to get away by their conversation. But how? He was in no shape to fight the last I could remember. Not like there was much to remember, I was knocked out almost right after he was.

"You will do nothing to lead them here." Spencer was saying. "We keep the fact she is here hidden from those freaks until the Master arrives. I will not risk loosing this specimen like the last one."

"Oh, so now you are listening to me? I tried to tell you that when you decided to try and catch them the first time."

There was an angry silence for a few moments. "Once the new device is finished, the Master will come through. Let him figure out how to catch the rest of them. I doubt that with the escape of the other that they will be caught off guard like that again."

"Smartest idea you had since we met." Hun mumbled. "Lord knows the fake gang robbery didn't work out the way you planned." Again there was a pause. "So why is he deciding to finally come here now?"

"He had certain...problems...there he had to deal with. He's decided he doesn't want to put this off anymore."

Hun just grunted at that. "What do we do with her?" I knew right away that the 'her' he mentioned was me.

"Keep her alive, for now. There is something intriguing about her. She is obviously one of them, but yet, different. If the Master has no use for her I intend to study her, thoroughly."

Hun let out a short nasty laugh at that. "I'm going to assume she won't survive it either."

"Of course not, but then, none of my specimens ever survive." The one called Spencer seemed very smug about that fact, and I grew very afraid from it. I tried to hide my trembling from them, but I couldn't. It seemed though that they didn't notice the fact I was awake because their conversation started to move away from me with the sounds of their footsteps.

Once they were gone I couldn't hold my fear in anymore and I began to shake uncontrollably in my shackles. Why did I leave the lair? Why did I go out alone like that? Why didn't I listen to Father? I wanted to go home, I wanted to wake up in my bed from this nightmare, I wanted my parents, I wanted my twin... Someone please help me! Screamed through my mind. Please, someone...please...

'_Lavi?_' My head snapped up. My eyes wide and searching the room. Was there someone there? That sounded like... _'Lavi! Where are you?!' _

The voice was faint, very faint, like it was trying to break through something. I could feel worry, anger and...joy?...fluttering around my head. But most of all, the calm patience that had guided me through my life. _'Daddy?'_

_'Where are you, turtle dove?' _It _was_ him!

_'I...I don't know. Hun has me. Daddy, please...I'm sorry and I'm scared.'_

_'Calm down child, look around the room. Let me see through your eyes.'_

_'You...can do that?'_

_'I can with you, somehow you are strong enough to penetrate the shield they have up. Now, please, calm down and look. I'm not sure how long this will last.' _Still bewildered by it all I did as I was told and let my eyes wander the room, taking some comfort that he was with me. I had no idea how I was doing what I just did, but was grateful now for the gift my parents already shared and somehow gave to me.

It was the sound of footsteps coming back that made my eyes fly back to the entrance of the room I found myself in, and fear washed over me as the large human came back in. _'Hun.'_ Father spat in my head.

"Well now, looks like the little freak is awake." He told me with an evil smirk and fear washed over me again. _'Steady, child. Focus.'_

_'Daddy...I'm so scared.'_

_'I know, but I need you to be strong now. Your fear is clouding my vision.'_

"You know, Spencer said you had to stay alive. He never said I couldn't have any fun with you." He leered as he got closer.

I could only watch with wide eyes as he approached, his intentions pretty obvious as he looked me over. I tried to control my fear, my feelings of helplessness so I wouldn't lose the only connection I had with my father. I could feel his rage and frustration building on his side of the bond as he also watched the large man approach.

Hun was standing next to me by now and had reached out to grab a fist full of my hair and forced me to look at him. "What say you freak? Up for a little ride?" I could only stare at him in fear as he brought his ugly face close to mine.

_'NO! This will_ not_ happen again!' _I heard Father scream in my head and suddenly my head pulled back, then flew forward to smash Hun's nose across his face. With a scream of rage he back peddled away, his hands flying to his obviously broken nose.

"And this is why we can't have her awake." Came Spencer's amused voice from the entrance. I looked over to see a well dressed, well groomed man in white watching the now wriggling on the floor Hun with amusement. "She's just as dangerous as the rest of them." He walked towards a nearby panel and looked at me almost regreatfully, then he flipped a switch. "Shame really. A conscious specimen is always so much more fun to play with.

I barely heard him as my body was once again ravaged with shocks, just like the ones I felt before. I tried to fight it, but I couldn't, the pain...god the pain...'_Lavi!_'

_'H-h-hurts...' _I managed to send him before I started to fade.

_'Lavi, stay with me, please! Please, lil one...' _was the last thing I heard before darkness consumed me again.


	14. Chapter 14

Father shot to his feet, almost dumping mother on the floor who had been still wrapped in his arms. "Somebody better find my damn daughter..._NOW!"_

"I told you...tranq needles." Aunt Cris mumbled from where she sat.

"Will you just hush!" Her mate snapped back at her before getting up. Uncle Raph walked from where he had been sitting with Ari and squarely placed himself in front of my father. "Leo, we are working as fast as we can."

"Not fast enough!" He almost shouted, his eyes flareing. It seemed he was going to say something else but shot a quick look at my mother and kept quiet, but not before I noticed his jaw clenching tightly.

"Leo, knock it off!" My Uncle shouted back. Now we were all on edge as we watched the two of them. Tensions were obviously about to spill over into a nasty fight.

It was mother who snapped them both out of it. "Stop it! Just stop! I...I can't do this anymore..." She was looking at both large turtles, tears once again in her eyes. "How is any of this helping to find Lavi and Mikey?" She almost whispered.

I was actually a mix of both my parents right now. I had Father's fury and Mother's worry. But there was something else I was feeling, something I couldn't describe. I frowned slightly as I tried to put my finger on it.

"Leo, come here for a sec." Aunt Marina said from where her and Ari were working on the map. Father took a few moments to regain his temper, mainly for my mother's sake I'm thinking, and walked over to see what she wanted. "Look, I know we haven't finished yet, but I thought you should see this."

Father looked down at the map and frowned a little. I shook off that curious feeling and joined him, peeked around him to have a look myself. The pattern that was emerging looked like two half circles, with the largest part of the bends not very far apart from each other. I gave my Father a confused look, but he seemed lost in thought. "Um...may I ask what it is?"

"Think Ty." Dante told me before Father could answer me from where he was also looking it over. "If the pattern keeps going the way it is, then it's more than likely going to be two circles."

"Two circles, two shields." Ari confirmed quietly.

Father looked quietly at both teens a moment before he nodded his head in agreement. "That does seem to be the case." He said in a soft tone.

"Not bad you two." Uncle Raph complimented from Father's other side. "Almost makes up for not having Donnie with us."

"I agree." Father said in that same quiet tone. "You are all holding up remarkably well, better than I am apparently." As he said that I could feel his legs starting to tremble, and he almost fell if it wasn't for Uncle Raph.

"Leo, go sit down."

Surprisingly, Father let my Uncle guide him back towards Mother and sat back down, once again wrapping his arms around her. Now Uncle Raph had a slightly worried look on his face as he came back. Then he just sighed and shook his head. "What's wrong?" I quietly asked my large Uncle.

He returned my gaze for a moment, seemingly to study me as he thought about answering. "Honestly Ty, it's the anger that is keeping him on his feet right now. The problem is your father doesn't do his best thinking with his mind clouded with it. He shouldn't be out here, and I don't think your mother should be either."

"But this isn't the first time one of you have gone missing? Why is tonight taking such a hard toll on them?"

"Use your head boy!" He almost snapped at me. "Mikey is more than capable to take care of himself, even if he is an idiot, he has the experience. Your sister does not and they both know that. If something happens to her, it very well may break them."

I was grateful for the honesty from him. It was always hard for us to see how inexperienced we actually were, Lavi just proved that by pulling that stunt. And now she was in danger because of it. I think for the first time I understood just how much we scared our parents when we all snuck out that first night. But I was still shocked more than a little at my Uncle's revelation. Father always seemed in control, always seemed to know what to do. Mother too, to a lesser degree. But now they both just seemed...lost.

To distract myself I looked at the map again, I was already worried about my sister, I didn't need the worry about my parents bubbling around in my head too. Again I felt that strange feeling wash over me I had earlier as I looked at the map, stronger this time. I wish I could explain it better, but I couldn't. I didn't even know what it was.

Then, with a mind of it's own it seemed, my hand reached out towards one of the half circles, fingertips tracing the map. I knew they were all staring at me, but I ignored them. There was something here, something...calling to me, pulling at me. After my hand reached a certain spot, it just stopped. "Here." I said quietly.

"Here what?" An obviously confused Dante asked me. Uncle Raph was now watching me through narrowed eyes. He looked like he was wondering if I was about to lose my marbles too.

"I...I don't know. All I can say is that there is something here."

I felt a hand turn me around and looked into my Father's eyes as he, too, studied me before his own eyes narrowed. "Ty, I want you to do something for me."

More than a little confused now I just nodded my head. "What?"

"Keep your hand on that spot and clear your mind. Remove all of the anger, worry, fear and think of your sister, reach out to her."

"What? Why?"

"She's tried to reach out once already." He replied softly and Uncle Raph snapped his head around to stare at him. "At first I was thinking it was me that was receiving the call, but now I'm not so sure. I think I just picked up on her call, that was aimed for you."

"Me? Why me?"

"You are her twin." Was his simple answer. His eyes remained calm as he looked into my now wide ones.

"Father..Dad...I don't know..."

"Try Ty, try for her."

With a shuddering breath, I nodded then looked back at the map. I hope Father really knew what he was talking about. With one last deep breath I did the only thing I could do to calm the burdensome feelings. I pulled up some memories of better times. Midnight raids to the kitchen when we were smaller to steal some cookies Uncle Mikey had baked, and tried unsuccessfully to hide from us. Us chasing Gramps' goats around, which caused Gramps to chase us with a stick. The nights when she would have a bad dream and would come to my room and crawl into bed with me. The countless hours we spent training under our Father's watchful eye. All the times we spent together, laughing, joking even crying. She has always been there, always been a part of me... _'Lavi...'_ I called out without even realizing I was doing it.

Silence was my only answer. _'Lavi, please.'_ I tried again.

Again there was silence and I almost gave up when I heard it, very faint. _'Ty?'_

My eyes grew wide in shock just as my hand flattened on that section of the map, like it was pulled down and Father gripped my arm at the same time. To steady me or to let me know he heard her, I don't know. _'I'm here, sis. We are looking for you.'_ Father was now motioning to Uncle Raph, using hand signals so not to break my concentration.

_'They...hurt me...can't wake up...'_

Uncle Raph was now quickly moving up towards the driver's seat, whispering to Dennis. Then I felt another presence in my mind. _'Lavi!'_ Father used me to call out to her. _'Can you hear me?'_

_'Daddy? I want...I want to go home...'_

_'We're coming, turtle dove.' _I had to smile at his nickname for her, it's been awhile since he's used any of our old nicknames.

_'So...tired...hurts...'_

Anger started to creep back in at hearing the pain in her voice. _'No Ty!' _Father snapped in my head. _'She's too far away to fight through the shield and your anger. I lost connection to her earlier because of mine. Keep calm.'_

_'I want to sleep...'_

_'Lavi, listen to me.' _Father's voice called out to her again._ 'You need to keep the connection open, can you do that?'_

_'Tired...' _

Father sighed in frustration, but I could tell it wasn't her he was frustrated at._ 'Rest then, child. We are coming as quickly as we can.'_

This time there was no answer and Father spun towards Dennis. "Get to that address as quick as you can. I'm not sure how much longer she can hold up." Dennis just nodded and floored it, pushing the large van as quick as he could.

Mother had now made it next to us and was staring at us with hope in her eyes. "Did...did you find her?"

Father just nodded and pulled her close.

"What about Mikey?" Amy asked.

"He's not with her, that much I could gather from her earlier." Father replied. "She doesn't know where he is."

"So he could be held in another room, maybe?" Ari asked.

"I don't know. But the only way to find out is to get over there and rip the place apart."

"About damn time." Thane mumbled where he was silently watching the events unfold.

"Watch your mouth boy!" Both of his parents snapped at him and he winced.

"I still say we are overlooking something." Ari mumbled.

"Like what?" Dante asked her.

"I don't know...that's what's bugging me, has been bugging me." She sighed in frustration. "But I am curious as to why there are two shields, and so close together."

"Two different hideouts maybe?"

"That makes no sense Dante. If you look how close they are together, they might as well should have combined both locations into one hideout."

"First things first, we know where Lavi is, we get her and Mikey if he is there, then we go investigate this other one." Uncle Raph said.

It wasn't long after that when Dennis pulled the van to a stop in a construction site. "Close as I dare to get folks. It's foot peddlin' time from here." As we all stood up and made sure we had everything we needed, Dennis handed out headsets to us all before he took out a small portable receiver. Father looked at him with a raise eyeridge as he strapped it on. Dennis caught the look and returned it. "I'm coming too, Leo. I'll be damned if I let them hurt her any more than they already have."

Father looked like he was going to argue, but nodded instead before turning to follow my Uncle out of the van.

"You sure you are up to this?" I heard Uncle Raph ask him.

"I'm going to get my daughter, Raph. I don't have a choice not to be up to it."

"Well then, what are we waiting for?" He grinned and led the way at a swift trot.


End file.
